The Monsters of the Maze
by Annie Gray
Summary: Echo woke up in the Box. She was terrified, alone, and unable to remember anything. When the box finally opens she is surrounded by a bunch of strange boys who have never seen a girl before. She has to work hard to win their trust and fit in with them as if this entire situation is normal, when in reality, it is far from normal.
1. The Box

Echo. All that I can hear is the constant echo of the Box moving up. I feel it moving and smell something awful. Suddenly the Box jerks up and I fall forward onto a crate of stuff sitting in front of me. I taste blood in mouth and realize that I must have bit my tongue or cut open my lip or something. I sit back up and think. What should I do? I feel around with my hands and reassure myself that there really is no way out of here. Then I lean against one of the sides and take a deep breath. I try to remember anything, anything at all, from my past that my help me in this situation, but nothing comes to mind. Nothing at all. I cant remember a thing. Not even my name! I spend a good hour or so trying to remember even the slightest detail about my life, but I cant. Once I accept this I lay down and try to fall asleep. It doesn't take long for me to drift into a soft, peaceful sleep.

I wake up when the Box jolts to a halt. I am about to sit up when I hear voices on the other side talking. Deciding it would be best to pretend to still be asleep, I stay still. I hear and the Box doors open and someone yells,  
"Rise and shine Greenie!"  
Then I feel someone jump into the Box with me. When I feel a hand on my arm and sit up and quickly get him in a position where I can break his neck if I needed to. As I quickly take in my surroundings I notice that there is a group of 40 to 50 boys standing around the Box looking alarmed at what I have just done.  
"No one moves." I say as threatening as I can, "If anyone makes a move, I snap his neck."  
"Alright, alright. Calm down." A blond boy says while cautiously walking towards me. I notice that he has a little bit of a limp and feel a pang of sympathy for him, knowing that he probably injured it somehow.  
"I want answers." I tell them  
"We will give you any answers you want, but you got to calm down first. None of this threatening klunk okay?"  
"Why am I here? Where am I? Why cant I remember anything? Who are you guys?"  
"This Greenie asks too many questions. I am leaving this one to you Newt." Some other guy says and then half the crowd walks out.  
"How many of yall are there?" I ask.  
"About 50." The blondie, who I am assuming to be Newt says. "We don't know why you are here. We don't know why any of us are here. We call this place the Glade and we are the Gladers. In a few weeks you will be one of us. The Creators took our memory. None of us can remember anything either."  
"How did you guys get here?"  
"Same way you did." Some other guy tells me as he drops down into the box next to me and the guy that I am holding hostage.  
"Oh hey, Alby. Nice of you to join the party." Says the kid who is still stuck down here with me. "You gonna get me out of this klunk or what?"  
"All in due time." The guy, Alby, says. "Now. What is your name?" He asks me. I begin to panic because I don't remember what my name is, but I refuse to show weakness. I tell them the first thing that comes to mind.  
"Echo." I say. The guy I am still holding onto laughs.  
"Yeah right. What's your real name Greenie."  
"Stop calling me that." I tell him while tightening my grip on him.  
"Alright. Echo, right?" I nod and he continues. "Okay Echo, would you please let my friend go?" Alby asks. "Then you and Newt can go on a little walk around the Glade together and he can answer all of your many questions as best he can. Okay?"  
I take a deep breath and look at Newt. He isn't very big. Plus he has that limp. I should be able to take him if I need to. "Alright." I say and shove the guy away. When I get a good look at him I see that he is very lean and relatively muscular. He has black hair and tan skin. He rolls his shoulders and turns to Alby.  
"I am heading out into the Maze." He says and and then turns to look at me. "Good luck with the new Greenie Newt." He says before pulling himself out of the Box and then running off.


	2. The Glade

Alby and Newt help me out of the box and then Alby quickly leaves. Newt tells me that we usually do the tour of the Glade on the first full day for the Greenie, but since I seem to be handling everything pretty well, he could at least just show me where everything is. We start on the North East corner of the Glade and make our way around it as we go. All the while I am asking him questions.  
"Who was that guy that was in the Box with me?"  
"You mean the one you threatened to kill? That was Minho."  
"He told Alby that he was gonna go into the Maze. What is the Maze?"  
Newt motions to the massive walls that surround the Glade. "Outside of those walls is a maze. Its big enough that the Runners have been searching for the exit for at least three years and they still havent even found a clue to the exit."  
"How could It possibly be that big?"  
"I dont know. What makes finding an exit harder is the fact that every night when those doors close, the Maze changes. You can hear it. The walls moving and shifting. Making it nearly impossible for us to even have a chance at finding an exit, but we keep searching anyway."  
"Who are the Runners?"  
"They are the people who are chosen to run the maze. You have to be incredibly fast and have a great memory to be one."  
"Why?"  
"You gotta be fast so that you dont get stuck in the Maze over night and you gotta have a great memory cause you have to be able to memorize what you ran that day."  
"Why cant you get stuck in the Maze over night?"  
"No one has ever stayed the night in the Maze and lived."  
"Why not?"  
"The Greivers will get you."  
"What are Greivers?"  
"They are what we call these big half metal half living creature monsters that are in the Maze."  
I shiver just thinking about them. As I look around the Glade I notice that a lot of the boys are staring at me. "Why do they all stare at me?"  
"Because your a bloody female."  
"So? Havent you guys seen a girl before."  
"There's never been a girl in the Glade."  
"Seriously?"  
"Yeah."  
"Why not?"  
"We dont know, but your the first one.  
"I wonder why." I mumble to myself. Then I see a shiny movement at the edge of the woods. "What's that?" I ask while pointing towards it.  
"That's a beetle blade. The Creators use them to spy on us."  
"Why?"  
"I dont know."  
"Do you guys know anything about the Creators?"  
"No. We dont know much about anything outside of the Glade."  
"Alright." I say as I think for more questions to ask him. He stops in front of a building.  
"This is the Homestead. We all sleep here." He opens the door and ushers me inside. Then he leads me up some stairs and into a room. The room is a complete mess and it smells awful. I cringe at the smell and he leads me over to a bed in the far corner.  
"This is where you will be sleeping Greenie."  
"What's a Greenie?" I ask him.  
"You really do ask a lot of questions." He says. "A Greenie is the newbie that shows up once a month along with some supplies. They always come up in that Box."  
"Alright."  
"Tomorrow you will start your training by hanging out with the different groups and trying out their jobs and after that, wherever you fit in the best is where you will work."  
"Cool. I get to meet everyone?"  
"Yes you do."  
"Alright. Anything else?"  
"One more thing. The Glade only has 3 rules.

Everyone does their part. No slackers.

Never hurt another Glader. You have to trust each other.

Never go outside the Glade, unless you're a Runner.

Understand?"  
"Yes sir."  
"Good that." He says and then walks out of the room, leaving me alone to think about everything that has happened.


	3. The Bloodhouse

I wake with a start when I feel water poor all over me. I sit up gasping and look around to see who did that. I see Newt and Alby standing over me. Newt has a bucket in his hands and Alby just looks mad.  
"What was that for!" I ask  
"We couldnt shucking wake you up any other way." Alby tells me while scowling.  
"You are bloody hard to wake up Greenie." Newt says as he puts the bucket down.  
"Get the Greenie to breakfast and then take her to the Winston. She is training in the Bloodhouse today." Alby tells Newt and then walks off.  
"Well you heard him Greenie. Get dressed and then head downstairs to get you breakfast. We are running behind schedule now so your gonna have to shovel it in nice and quick." With that Newt leaves to let me get dressed.  
I get dressed into some clothes that they had left in a pile beside my bed. Then I go downstairs and get some food. I look around for Newt once I get outside and find him sitting at a table talking to someone. I sit next to him and look at the other person at the table.  
"Hey Greenie! Newt here tells me that your name is Echo. That true?" The guy asks me.  
"Yeah. What's your name?" I say  
"Winston. Cool name."  
"Thanks."  
"So you'll be spending the day with Winston here in the Bloodhouse." Newt tells me  
"That sounds cheery." I say sarcastically  
"It's not that bad." Winston assures me.  
"The next couple of weeks you will be training with each of the different keepers to see if your cut out for their specific job. Today you'll be with Winston and the other Slicers. Tomorrow is Builders, then the Bricknicks, then the Track-Hoes, then Cooks, then Med-jacks, then Sloppers, and finally Baggers." Newt says  
"What about the Runners?"  
"You have to be chosen to be a Runner. Someone recommends you after you've been here for a couple months and then there would have to be a big meeting." He explains.  
"I didn't want to be a Runner anyway." I say. I quickly finish my food and then Winston leads me over to a red barn that is in the South East corner of the Glade. Once we reach it he turns his back to the barn and faces me. He holds his arms out dramatically and says,  
"Welcome to the Bloodhouse where we raise animals and eventually slaughter them all for their meet and other valuable parts!"  
"If that is supposed to gross me out or scare me or intimidate me or something it doesn't. Let's just get this day over with."  
"Alright. Right this way miss." He says as he shows me into the barn. I wince at the smell a little bit but other than that I am unaffected.  
"So do you want to start with the killing or the taking car of the animals?"  
"I am not helping to raise those animals. If I do then I would constantly be looking at all of the food I eat wondering 'is this Jimmy?'"  
He laughs. "You would name a cow Jimmy?"  
"I dont know it was just first name that popped into my head." I tell him and before I know it, I am laughing too.  
"Alright. Let's kill some animals."

By the end of the day I have seen enough blood and killed enough helpless animals to last me a lifetime. Winston and I go and get some of Frypan's "awful" food. Winston explained that joke to me today. He talked a lot about the other Gladers. He talked about how much pride Frypan has in his cooking, how scary Alby can be, and how mean Gally can be. He said a little bit about almost everyone in the Glade. We sit down at a picnic table and restart one of our earlier conversations. After a few minutes Newt walks over to us and I see Minho following behind. Newt takes a seat next to me and Minoh next to Winston.  
"Hey Minho." I say. He gives me a look and then nods in my direction. "Sorry for yesterday. I was just doing what I thought was the logical thing. I wont threaten to kill you again. I promise."  
"You wont get the chance to catch me off guard like that again." He says rather grumpily.  
"Well whatever. I was just trying to be nice."  
"So you did well in the Bloodhouse?" Newt asks.  
"Yeah she did great!" Winston tells him.  
I laugh. "I guess so, but I dont think I could do that on a daily basis. It was alright for a one time thing."  
"We'll just have to see how well you do with everything else."  
"Tomorrow is the Builders right? Winston tells me that Gally is the Keeper of the Builders." Newt nods. "He also tells me that Gally is a bit of a bully." Newt give a small nod again. "Well at least tomorrow will be interesting."


	4. The Builders

This time I wake up to Newt shaking me. Alby wasn't there this time, so it couldn't have been too bad. I look up at Newt and he smiles at me.  
"Your getting better at this Greenie. Now get up, get dressed and get your shuck butt downstairs for breakfast. Your with the Builders today." He says and then walks out. I get dressed and walk downstairs. I say hey to Frypan when he hands me food and then I go and sit down with Newt and Winston again. We eat and talk until it is time for Winston to go back to the Bloodhouse and Newt and I to go to the Builders. Newt and I walk up to a tall and skinny guy with black hair, green eyes, and a nose that resembles a deformed potato.  
"You get the Greenie today Gally." Newt says  
"Why? I doubt that she would ever be a builder." Gally replies.  
"I don't bloody care what you think. She is gonna do some work with you guys today and I dont wanna hear you complaining about it. Understand?"  
"Got it."  
"Good that." Newt says before walking away and leaving me with the Builders.  
Gally walks off and makes a motion with his hand that tells me to follow him. I follow him into this little shed thing with some tools in it. He grabs a nail and a hammer and hands them to me.  
"If you can hammer this nail into a wall then there is a possibility of you becoming a Builder." He tells me. Wordlessly, I take the hammer and nail from him and position the nail on the wall. I tap it a couple times with the hammer to steady it so that it will go in straight, then I hit it as hard as I can a couple times. The nail goes in perfectly and I turn around and smile at Gally who looks mildly shocked.  
"That wasnt too hard." I say.  
"Alright. Lets see what else you can do."

I spent the rest of the day working side by side with Gally. Right now he is arguing with one of the Bricknicks. I look over and see Newt walking towards.  
"I though that I made it clear that I didnt want you complaining Gally!" Newt says. Gally turns around and looks at Newt.  
"I cant take it anymore! That Greenie talks too shucking much! None of us can concentrate! I was just gonna hand her over to the Bricknicks for the rest of the day, but they wont take her!"  
"We dont want her either! We cant concentrate with her around!" The Bricknick says.  
"There is no chance of her ever being a Builder or a Bricknick with that motormouth of hers. There is no point in her spending the rest of the day with us anyway!"  
"Alright, alright. I'll bloody take her for the rest of the day. Now get back to work."  
Newt walks off and I follow him. I jog up next to him and ask "So where are we gonna go for the rest of the day?"  
"Do you ever shut up?"  
"Its not my fault that I have a lot on my mind. Besides, I am not nearly as talkative as Gally and them said I am. I just figured out that me talking a lot annoyed them so I started talking more. I never wanted to be a Builder anyway."  
Newt gives me a look. "Alright." Is all he says.  
"So where are we going?" I ask him again.  
"The Graveyard."  
"We have a Graveyard?"  
"Yeah. It's in the Deadheads."  
"Oh. How many have died?"  
"Too many." He says gravely. I decide that this is a good time to shut up. We get to the Graveyard a few minutes later and he shows me around. Telling me all of their names and how they all died. After he is done with that he says that he is going to go check on things in the rest of the Glade. When he walks off I look around and find a tree that looks perfect for climbing. I monkey climb my way up to the top and then sit there. I can see almost the entire Glade from up here. It is amazing. I look up and see that the sun is about to start setting over the Glade wall. The Runners will be back soon. Which means that dinner should be about ready. I climb out of the tree and start making my way to the Homestead. By the time I get there most of the Runners are back and it wont be long before the Doors close for the night. I grab some food and sit at a picnic table with Newt, Winston, and Minho.  
"Hey boys." I say.  
"Hey." Newt and Winston say back.  
"What? Are you not even gonna say 'hey' to me?" I ask Minho.  
He gives me an obviously fake smile. "Hey best friend who tried to shucking kill me!"  
"Hey! I apologized for that! Besides, I didnt _try_ to kill you. I simply threatened to kill you."  
"Oh right, because that makes it so much better."  
"I think it does. If I try to kill you, that indicates that you have already done something that made me mad. If I threaten to kill you then it is more likely that I dont know you and I was just trying to get something out of someone."  
Minho rolls his eyes at me.


	5. The Track-Hoes

I manage to wake up on my own and almost on time this morning. I must be getting used to this. I go through my usual routine of getting dressed, getting food, and meeting Newt and Winston at a picnic table for breakfast. When I get out there I realize that I managed to wake up early enough to see the Runners start to make their way into the Maze. I see Minho stand up from the table that Newt and Winston are sitting at. He looks at me in almost a friendly way this time as he starts to walk off. We all say bye to him and then he runs off towards one of the doors. Winston, Newt and I finish our breakfast and then go our separate ways. Newt takes me to the Keeper of the Track-Hoes, Zart, and then Zart goes around showing me how everything works and where everything is. Over all the Garden looks pretty good. Zart and the other Track-Hoes seem like cool guys too. I feel like I could work here. Zart starts me out helping with the weeds. As I walk around the Garden weeding, I notice that the Carrots are in an area where they might not be getting as much sun as they need. I notice a couple other things like that as well so I decide to talk to Zart about it. I walk up to him and get his attention.  
"Whats up Greenie?"  
"The Carrots. They arent looking too good."  
"Yeah I know. I have been trying to figure out whats wrong with them, but they just dont seem to be growing very well."  
"I think I know what the problem is."  
"Really?"  
"Yeah. Carrots should get lots of sunlight and the spot that you have them in might not be giving them enough. If you switched them, perhaps with the Tomatoes that wont need as much sun, but are in an area that the Carrots might grow better in."  
He looks at me and then the Tomatoes and then the Carrots and then back at me. "Hey Newt!" He yells. Newt walks over to see whats up.  
"Yeah?"  
"Can I just go ahead and claim this girl as a Track-Hoe?"  
"Why?"  
"Because she is shucking amazing thats why. I think that she might have just fixed our Carrot problem." They both look at me.  
"Well then you get someone on the Carrots and I will go talk to Alby, but he will probably make us call a Gathering." Newt says and then they both walk off. Zart comes back a few minutes later and says,  
"You wouldnt happen to have anymore ideas would you?"  
I smile at him. "Well..."

Its late in the day and the sun is setting. Runners are started to come back into the maze and I am still helping Zart and the other Track-Hoes in the Gardens. Once Minho gets back Alby is gonna call a quick Gathering so that any other Keeper who might want me can get a chance to keep Zart from getting me right off the bat. As I pull up a couple weeds that were growing near the Potatoes I see Minho run back into the Glade. Newt calls him over and he jogs towards the Garden. I walk over there to talk to them as well.  
"Hey Minho." I say  
"Hey Greenie. What's up Newt?" He asks  
"We are gonna have a Gathering after dinner." Newt tells him.  
"What? Why?"  
"Zart wants the Greenie to hurry up and be a Track-Hoe instead of having her train with all of the other Keepers. So Alby decided that we would have a small Gathering after dinner to give anyone who might want the Greenie a chance to speak out. "  
"Alright." Minho says and then jogs off to the Homestead to get some food.  
"Is it time for dinner yet?" I ask Newt  
"Yeah, I guess so." He says and then we both walk off to the Homestead.

Dinner is over and the Keepers went into the Homestead to have the Gathering a few minutes ago. I find myself hoping that none of the other Keepers want me. I would love to be a Track-Hoe and I dont want one of them to ruin that by speaking up and saying they want me. After a few more minutes of sitting on a picnic table and being bored out of my mind the Keepers finally come out of the Homestead. I immediately find myself looking for Newt, Minho, or Zart. Minho is the first one to come out. He gives me a small smile and then walks off to talk to one of the other Runners. Then Newt and Zart come out talking to each other. Zart sees me and gives me a huge smile.  
"Looks like tomorrow will be your first official day as a Track-Hoe!" He says excitedly and I cant help but to smile with him.


	6. Getting Used To Life In The Glade

I've been a Track-Hoe for about a week now and I have started to figure some things out. It didn't take me long to realize that I have to put on a tough act in front of some of the guys to get them to actually respect me. Zart helps me out in that area by letting me act as a back up Keeper in case he isn't around to yell at the boys. Thanks to that, I get to boss some of them around and and therefore get a little bit more respect from them. With my friends though, such as Newt, Minho, Winston, and Zart, I don't have to put on any act. I can just be my normal carefree, goofy self. Those two facts led me to another, I am a really good actress. I can put on a show that could convince anyone. Well... Almost anyone. I get the feeling that Minho can see through most of my acts. Something else I have noticed is that most of the Gladers seem to have gotten used to me. There are still a few of them that stare as I walk by, but I can usually scare them off with a glare. The final thing that I have figured out, and probably the most important one, is that long hair is incredibly annoying. It gets in the way of everything. When I am eating if there is even the slightest bit of wind my hair flies into my face, while I am working it gets caught in plants and tangled up in vines, and even when I am sleeping its just so wild that I have to constantly move it. I am sitting in a tree in the Deadheads thinking about all of this when I realize that the boys must have something that they use to cut their hair. I climb down out of the tree and then walk out of the Deadheads. Everyone is on break for lunch right now so Newt should be at a picnic table. When I look over there I see Newt sitting down and talking to another Glader. I think his name is Dave. As I approach them Dave stops talking and casts his eyes down as if he scared to look at me. I decide that the best thing to do is act natural. I sit down next to Newt and neither of them talk.  
"Hey Newt." I say breaking the silence.  
"Hey. What's up?"  
"I was wondering what you boys have to cut your hair with."  
"We have some scissors. Why?"  
"I want a hair cut."  
"I don't know how to cut a girls hair."  
"Just cut it like you do for the boys."  
"You want short hair?"  
"Yeah."  
Newt gives me a look. "Alright. Then lets go cut your hair."

It took a little longer than I thought it would, but eventually Newt had finally cut off all of that long, annoying hair. As I look at it all laying on the ground at my feet I realize for the first time that I have red hair. I guess I never really took the time to look at myself. Newt looks at me and nods.  
"I think I did an okay job." He says.  
"Yeah. We will see what the others think about it."  
We both walk out and I make my way back to the Garden. As I do I feel the boys watching me. Staring at me as if I am some strange creature. When I make it to the Garden all of the other Track-Hoes had stopped working and were staring at me.  
"What you shanks looking at?" I say, "Get back to work."  
They hurriedly get back to doing their different tasks. I see Zart walk towards me.  
"You got all your hair chopped off."  
"Yes I did. How does it look? Did Newt do a good job?"  
"Yeah. He did a great job. I like it."  
"Thanks. So-" I was just about to say something else when I hear a noise coming from the Box. I look at Zart questioningly and he smiles.  
"What is going on with the Box?" I ask him.  
"Come and see." He says and leads me to it. When we get over there the Box doors have already opened and some of the other Gladers are there too. As I look around I notice that most of them are Keepers. I see Newt and Alby climb into the Box and start pulling stuff out of it and giving it to different people.  
"Every week the Box brings up new supplies for us to use. Sometimes if we write something down on a sheet of paper and then put it in the Box we will get whatever it is that we requested. Last week we requested some Squash so I hope that we get some." Zart explains to me.  
"I have been here for two weeks though. How did I miss it the first time it came up?"  
"I dont know. Maybe you were on break or something."  
It takes a few minutes for Alby and Newt to pass out all of the supplies, but when they finally get to us we see that they did give us some Squash.  
"Great! I know exactly where to plant this!" I tell Zart.  
He laughs. "Of course you do."

After I help Zart and the others plant the Squash the rest of the evening seems to go by pretty fast. One minute I am helping plant some Squash and then the next I start to see the Runners coming in. As I walk out of the Garden to get some dinner, I see Minho come back into the Glade. He starts to make his way towards that building that all the Runners go into right after leaving the Maze. Right before he enters he makes eye contact with me. We stare at each other for what feels like a couple minutes before he looks away and walks into the building. I shake my head a little bit and then go and get my food. Once I have something to eat I find Newt and Winston and sit down with then.  
"Wow Greenie! Nice hair cut." Winston tells me.  
"Thanks."  
"See. I told you I did a good job." Newt says as he nudges me.  
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever."  
"Seriously though. Now you don't stand out as much." Winston says. "Was that why your cut? So that you wouldnt have half of us staring at you?"  
"Not really. I just got annoyed with having long hair. It got in the way of everything. Why do some of them still stare at me? I think that they have had enough time to get used to me. "  
"Your the only girl in a Glade full of teenage boys. I am pretty sure that at this point the boys that are doing that are doing it because they like you. I mean, I wont lie, you are really pretty and now that you've got that new hair cut you look like a pretty tough shank." Winston explains.  
I roll my eyes.  
"What? You don't believe me?"  
"Its not that I don't believe you. I just don't want all that attention."  
"Yeah. I don't like attention either."  
"Is that because your embarrassed by how much acne you have?" I ask jokingly. Winston blushes deep red and Newt tries to hide a laugh with little success. I see Minho walk up to the Homestead and wave him over to us. By the time he gets here Newt has already failed at trying not to laugh and is cracking up beside me as Winston turns an even darker red.  
"What happened?" He says as he takes a seat next to me.  
"I made a comment about Winston's acne and Newt started laughing. I don't know why though. It wasn't very funny."  
"Well apparently to him it was." Minho says as he starts to smile. He looks back at me and I see his eyes look at my hair.  
"What do you think?" I ask him.  
"About what?" He says sounding distracted and still looking at my hair.  
I roll my eyes. "About my hair."  
"Oh." He laughs and ruffles my hair as if I were a little kid. "You look tough Greenie."  
I duck my head out from his hand and laugh. "Thanks shank." I say.  
"Who you calling shank, shank?" Minho says as he pushes me off the bench. I look up at him shocked and see Newt laughing with him. Winston looks as shocked as I feel.  
"Oh really!" I say as I start laughing with them. I jump up and tackle him off the bench. I pin him to the ground and look down at him. Now its my turn to laugh at him as he looks shocked. I feel him move to flip us over so that he will be pinning me down instead of the other way around. I jump off of him before he has the chance. Then I see him grabbing for my ankle. I take off at a run before he can. When I look back over my shoulder at him I see that he is chasing after me. I laugh again and keep running even though there is no point in running from a Runner. It doesn't take long for me to feel his body crash into mine as he tackles me to the ground. I look up at him and feel his chest shaking against mine as we both laugh. He pins me against the ground and puts his face right next to mine.  
"Do you give up yet?" He asks.  
"Yes. I give up! Now get off me!" I say, still laughing. He gets off me and holds his hand out to help me up. I take his hand and get up, brushing myself off.  
"Alright you two. Enough messing around. It's time for bed." I hear Newt say from behind us. I turn around and see that he still has the hint of a smile on his face.  
"Alight." I say. "See you shanks in the morning."


	7. The Dream

_I am standing over a boy. I have never seen him in the Glade before, but I know that that is where we are. The boy is young, 12 or 13 years old. He is small and kinda chubby, with brown hair and blue eyes. The poor kid looks terrified, so I smile kindly at him. He seems to relax slightly and I crouch down next to him.  
"Hey. I'm Echo. What's your name?" I ask him. As he opens his mouth to reply he starts to fade away. He disappears completely before I can hear his answer.  
I stand up and look around to find myself in a different place. Now I am in the middle of the Glade. As I look around I see that the Doors have closed and the sun has set. Everyone is sitting at the picnic tables eating. It looks like a normal dinner in the Glade. Then I notice that the little terrified boy that I saw only moments ago. He was sitting alone. I am walking towards him to try and talk to him again when I hear Minho call my name. When I turn to look at him I see him laughing with Newt, Winston, and Zart. He waves me over to them and I find myself smiling too. I start walking over to them and then remember the kid. As I turn to look at him again everything starts fading away._

I open my eyes and I am in the Homestead. I look around to see that everyone is still asleep. I sit up and rub my face before slipping on my shoes and walking quickly out of the building. When I get outside I run my hand through my hair and take a deep breath. Then I take off at a run to the Deadheads. By the time I get to the Graveyard I am out of breath. Once I catch my breath I look up at the tree and jump to grab the lowest branch. After climbing high enough to see the whole Glade I stop and sit down. Then I watch the Glade in silence as everything within it sleeps. Who was that boy from my dream? The next Greenie? Why was he all alone? Why was he so young? How could the Creators send someone that young into the Glade? I shake my head. This is pointless. It was just a dream.  
"What are you doing up there?" I hear a voice say from below me. I look down, but it is too dark for me to see who it is.  
"Thinking." I tell him.  
"Why would you do that? Thinking can be dangerous you know."  
I roll my eyes. "Right."  
"What are you thinking about?"  
"A dream."  
"A dream? What was it about?"  
"A boy in the Glade."  
"Which one?"  
"None of them."  
"That doesn't make any sense. You just said that you were dreaming about one of them."  
"There was a little boy in the Glade, but he wasn't someone I have ever seen here before. I don't know who he was."  
"Well there's no point in thinking about it all shuck morning."  
"Yeah." I say absentmindedly. I see the sun beginning to rise over the east wall and completely forgot what I wanted to say. The sun rise is beautiful as it floods the Glade with morning light. Once it is over and the sun has made it completely over the wall I climb out of the tree and remember the boy I was talking to. I look around to find him, but there is no sign of him anywhere. I shake my head again and start walking back to the Homestead. When I get there I see Newt, Winston, and Zart. Minho is already running off into the Maze for the day. I sit down and smile at them.  
"Are you not gonna eat any breakfast?" Newt asks me.  
"I'm not hungry." I tell him. I have too much running through my head right now to be hungry.  
"Alright, but I don't wanna hear you complaining when you get hungry later on. I am not giving you a break." Zart says.  
"Yeah, yeah. I know." I say and then pause. Should I ask if one of them was the boy I talked to? It couldn't hurt to ask right? "Did any of you guys talk to me this morning?"  
They all give me weird looks. "We're talking to you now. And it's morning." Zart says  
"That's not what I meant."  
"Then what did you mean?" Winston asks.  
"Earlier I was in the Deadheads and there was this guy who what talking to me. It was too dark for me to see his face though, so I couldn't figure out who he was. He was gone by the time the sun came up."  
"Why were you in the Deadheads?" Newt asks me.  
"I had a weird dream."  
"What was it about?" New asks. I look at him and shake my head.  
"It doesn't matter." I say before I stand up and walk away.


	8. The Mystery Boy

The next couple of days I spend talking to everyone in the Glade, trying to recognize one of them as the boy from the other night by hearing their voices. Unfortunately none of them seem to match. He must have talked differently when he was talking to me, so that I wouldn't recognize him. I have decided to call him Shadow for now. It's dinner time and right now I am talking to Newt, Winston, Zart, and Minho about Shadow.  
"Have you even considered the possibility that you just imagined him?" Minho asks.  
I glare at him. "I'm not crazy."  
"I never said you were. It's just that you seem pretty worked up over this dream, maybe you just imagined a person so that you could talk to someone about it."  
"No. There was someone there. I know it." I say as I stand up and walk into the Homestead. When I get to my bed I lay down and close my eyes. It doesn't take long for me to drift off into an _almost_ peaceful sleep.

 _I am standing outside the Slammer. When I look into it I see someone with long black hair, sitting with their head down. Suddenly the person lifts their head up and looks at me. It's a girl. There is another girl in the Glade. She is very beautiful with fair skin, black hair, and striking blue eyes.  
"What are you doing here?" She snaps at me.  
I take a step back and say, "I-i don't know." Then I turn to leave, but as I do the scene fades away.  
Now I am in the Deadheads next to the Graveyard. I see a guy who I recognize as one of the Builders. He is attacking someone I don't recognize. I am about to do something when I hear Alby yell at him. Alby has his bow and arrow aimed at the Builder. The Glader starts ranting on and on about some guy named Thomas being evil. Alby keeps warning him, telling him to slim it. In the end Alby has no choice, but to shoot. I watch as the arrow buries itself in the poor shanks cheek and then the world fades to nothing._

I sit up in my bed and have to bite my lip to keep myself from crying out. I take a deep breath and grab my shoes before running out of the Homestead and into the Deadheads again. I climb the same tree as last time and hug my legs close to me as I sit. Looking at the Graveyard below, I am trying to stop the constant reply of Alby killing that Builder. I close my eyes and let one silent tear run down my fave as I bury my head in my knees.  
"What's got you so upset?" I hear Shadow's voice say from the base of the tree.  
"Who are you?" I ask in a soft, shaky voice.  
"That's not important. Why are you sad?"  
Should I even be talking to this guy? What if he is just some creepy stalker Glader? Or what if Minho is right and he is just a figment of my imagination? I could be talking to myself right now. At least I am talking about it though. If I didn't then these dreams would drive me mad. Maybe it's a good thing I don't know who he is. I can talk to him without feeling judged.  
"I had another dream." I finally tell him.  
"What happened in this one?"  
"The first part had a girl in it. A beautiful girl. But that's crazy right? There's never been a girl in the Glade. Well... Besides me of course."  
"Okay. What about the second part?"  
"There was a Builder... He was attacking someone and Alby was telling him to stop. He kept rambling on about someone named Thomas. Is there a Glader named Thomas?"  
"I don't think so."  
"Okay. Well in the end Alby had to shoot the Builder with his bow and arrow. That's where the dream ended."  
"Alby killed someone?"  
I nod before realizing that he probably didn't see it. "Yeah." I tell him.  
"You shouldn't worry about it too much. It was just a dream."  
"Right..." I say as I see the sun beginning to rise. As light fills the Glade I look down to see Shadow, but I was too late. He was already gone. I jump out of the tree and run to the Homestead. When I come out of the Deadheads I see Minho jogging to the Doors that are about to open.  
"Hey Minho!"  
He turns to look at me. "What's up Greenie?"  
"Did you see anyone come out of the Deadheads a minute ago?"  
"No, I don't think so. Why? You looking for someone?"  
"Yeah. I just talked to Shadow and now he is gone again."  
"I'm telling you Greenie, you're just imagining him." Minho says and he ruffles my hair. I push he hand away and notice the Doors beginning to open.  
"Yeah, yeah. You gotta go."  
He laughs. "See you tonight Greenie."

 **AN: Oooh! Who could Shadow possibly be? *eyebrow wiggle* If you people could have any idea of who he is or should be please comment it!**


	9. Chuck

It's been 4 days since I had a dream and talked to Shadow. Since then it has been pretty uneventful in the Glade, but today I am very excited. Today is the day I am no longer a Greenie. This is the day that the Box will come up with a new Greenie! About 30 minutes ago I was talking to Zart about it when a deafening alarm sounded all around the Glade. I stopped what I was doing to cover my ears and when I looked around everyone was basically ignoring it. Zart explained that it signalled the Greenie's arrival was soon. Now I see everyone walking towards the Box and I follow them. By the time I get there it is so crowded that I cant see anything. As I hang out in the back I hear a bunch of shouts and laughs coming from the boys. After a few minutes of that the crowd parts and I see a small figure running to the Deadheads. He isn't moving very fast, but I can tell that he is going as fast as he can. He looks like a little boy. I see the group of Gladers break apart and Newt starts to follow the Greenie. I jog up next to him and grab his arm, stopping him. He turns to face me.  
"What is it?" He asks.  
"The Greenie is just a child."  
"And?"  
"And, the Gladers are a big group of rambunctious teenage boys that have already scared the poor kid enough. I will go talk to him and get him to come to the Homestead."  
Newt looks at Alby who nods at him. "Alright, but once he is in the Homestead you have to hand him over to me."  
"Of course."  
I turn and walk off to the Deadheads to find the Greenie. I start in the Graveyard and make my way out from there, After almost 20 minutes of looking I finally find him curled up in a ball the corner where 2 of the Walls meet. He looks up at me with his blue eyes and I realize that he is the terrified kid from my first dream. Just like in the dream, I smile at him and he relaxes slightly. Then I crouch down next to him.  
"Hey. I'm Echo. What's your name?" I ask him.  
"Chuck." He says shyly.  
"Welcome to the Glade Chuck. You don't need to be afraid." I tell him. "You're safe here. I promise." I stand up and hold out my hand to him. He takes it cautiously and I help him up. Then we start walking towards the Homestead.  
"Your a girl." He says plainly.  
"Yeah."  
"Aren't girls supposed to have long hair?"  
"Mhm."  
"Then why don't you?"  
"I didn't want long hair."  
"Are there any other girls here?"  
"Nope." I say popping the 'p'.  
"Why not?"  
"I dunno know."  
The entire way to the Homestead he is asking question after question. Its annoying. Is this what I was like when I first got here? When we finally get to the Homestead it's already packed with hungry Gladers trying to get their share of Frypan's disgusting food. I get some for myself and the kid and then we sit down with Minho, Newt, and Winston. Chuck is still talking.  
"What were you like on your first day?" He asks  
"She tried to shucking kill me before we even got her out of the Box." Minho answers before I can.  
"Threatened." I correct him. "I threatened to kill you. It wasn't like you hopped into the Box and I attacked you. You hopped into the Box and I took you hostage."  
"Either way you almost killed him." Newt says.  
"I wouldn't have killed him."  
"Really?" Minho asks, clearly not believing it.  
"Well... I didn't kill you. That's whats important."  
After dinner everyone is sitting outside in the their own little groups talking. I notice the Greenie sitting all alone and frown as I remember the dream I had. I start thinking of things that could bring all the Gladers together in a moment of fun and the first thing that pops into my head is music. I can remember a few songs from before the Glade, but no matter how hard I try I can remember who sang them or their titles. Then again, those don't matter right now. I walk over to Chuck and ask him if he wants to do something fun. He smiles and nods his head, so I grab his hand and walk into the open space in the middle of everyone. I take a deep breath and start singing.

"I had a dream so big and loud,  
I jumped so high I touched the clouds.  
Wo-o-o-o-o-o, wo-o-o-o-o-o  
I stretched my hands out to the sky,  
We danced with monsters through the night.  
Wo-o-o-o-o-o, wo-o-o-o-o-o..."

Chuck and I dance around in the open space as I sing and slowly everyone stops talking. Then Winston smiles and starts dancing with us. Other Gladers follow after him and soon half the Glade is dancing and laughing and having fun. By now most of them have figured out the chorus and are singing along. I look over at Newt and Minho who are still sitting down. I dance towards them and grab Newts hand.  
"Come on! You cant just sit there! Join the fun!" I say to him.  
"I can't dance with my bad leg." Newt says.  
I frown at him. "Fine. You have an excuse." I turn to Minho and find that he has gone. I look around and see him walking off. I run up to him and grab his arm. He turns to face me.  
"Echo, I have to get some sleep. I can't spend all night dancing." He says. For some reason hearing him say my name surprises me and I feel a wave of chills run throughout my body. I ignore it.  
"I hate to break it to you, but your excuse is invalid. You are going to dance with the rest of us." I say as I start dragging him back to the crowd of dance Gladers.  
"Echo-"  
"Nope. Not gonna hear it. You are dancing for at least one song."  
"I don't even know how to dance."  
"That's bull klunk! Besides, none of us 'know' how to dance. What we are doing is more like... moving with the beat."  
"This is stupid and pointless."  
"No. This is fun!" I grab both of his hands and force him to dance with me. At first he is pretty unwilling, but eventually I get him to dance on his own and bu the end of our little dance party he seems to actually be enjoying it!  
"See! That wasn't that bad right?" I ask when we start walking to the Homestead.  
"Whatever, but I am never doing that again."  
"Alright." I say smiling at him. "Now we just have to get Newt to do something fun."  
He laughs and says, "Good luck with that."

 **AN: The song she sings is Best Day Of My Life by American Authors**


	10. The Game

It's been 3 days since the Greenie showed up and I have already started to get more respect around here without having to put on a tough act. I can be my normal self around all of the Track-Hoes and most of the Keepers, plus some of the other Gladers. At lunch Newt kept complaining about the Greenie. I just laughed and reminded him that Chuck is just a hyperactive child. Zart gave me a 5 minute break today and said that I could choose when I wanted to use it. I waited until 5 minutes before dinner, which is right after the sunset. Now I am sitting in the tree watching as the Runners return one by one. I see Minho run in just as the sun starts to set. The sun set isn't as breathtaking at the sun rise, but it is still pretty. Once the sun disappears over the Wall I climb out of the tree and walk to the Homestead. Half way there I see the Greenie sitting alone. I am walking towards him when I hear my name being called. I turn in the direction of the voice and see Minho waving me over as he laughs with Zart, Newt, and Winston. I smile and start walking to them. Then I remember the dream I had. This exact thing happened. I turn back to Chuck and yell,  
"Hey Greenie!" He looks up at me, "Come here!" He smiles and walks over to me.  
"Hi Echo." He says. "What did you want?"  
"Nothing. You just looked so lonely over there, I thought you might want to come eat with me and my friends."  
"Okay!" He says excitedly.  
I lead him to Minho, Winston, Newt, and Zart.  
"Hey boys." I say as I sit next to Zart. "Can the Greenie sit with us?"  
"Sure." Newt says a bit reluctantly as he scoots over to give Chuck a place to the kid sits down the table falls into an awkward silence. Minho gives me a look and I roll my eyes at him.  
"So, what was so funny earlier?" I ask  
"Nothing." Minho says rudely.  
There is another awkward silence.  
"We should play a game." I say, breaking the silence.  
"Like what?" Winston asks.  
"Truth or Dare." Zart suggests.  
"Sounds good to me." Minho says and we all agree. "But the Greenie can't play." He adds.  
I give him a look and turn to Chuck. "Sorry kid. Your gonna have to sit this one out."  
"That's fine. I can watch you guys play it though, right?"  
"Of course you can." I tell him. Minho starts to protest, but I shut him up with a glare and a kick to the shin.  
"Who starts it?" Winston asks  
"I say that the person with the most acne starts it." I say smiling as everyone looks to Winston.  
"Ha. Ha. You're so funny Echo." He says sarcastically. "Newt, truth or dare?"  
"Dare."  
"I dare you to lick Zart's face."  
"I can't. There's no way Zart would-"  
"I don't care." Zart says, cutting him off.  
"What?" Newt asks, surprised.  
"I am giving you permission to take the dare."  
"I hate you." Newt says  
"I know." Zart says as he closes his eyes in preparation. Newt leans over to Zart and licks his cheek. Everyone at the table bursts out laughing except Zart and Newt. Zart is wiping off his face and Newt just looks disgusted. When the laughter dies down Newt turns to Zart.  
"Zart, truth or dare?"  
Zart looks worried, but he still says, "Dare."  
Newt smiles. "I dare you to run 3 laps around the Glade."  
"Oh. Okay, that's not too bad." Zart says, looking relieved.  
"Naked." Newt adds.  
"Like... Fully naked? No clothes naked?"  
"Butt. Naked."  
Zart gulps and looks at me. I shrug my shoulders. He sighs and stands up from the table.  
"Echo." He says as he takes off his shirt. "Truth or dare?"  
Unlike the boys, my pride won't be wounded if I don't choose dare and I really don't feel like having to do anything crazy right now.  
"Truth.  
"Which Glader do you like?"  
"You mean, in that way or as a friend?"  
"As in who would you kiss and date and stuff?" Now he has moved onto removing his shorts and boxers. I look at the table so that I don't see anything I don't want to. When I hear him run off I look back up to find the rest of them looking at me expectantly.  
"Oh! Umm... I guess Shadow." I tell them.  
"You mean that mystery guy who helps you through some weird dreams?" Winston asks.  
"Yeah."  
"You don't even know who he is." Newt says.  
"So? Knowing his name wouldn't change what I like about him. I remember this quote from some story outside the Maze, 'Whats in a name? That which we call a Rose by any other name would still smell as sweet.' It basically means that names don't matter and I think that it is true."  
"He could just be your imagination though."  
"I don't care. My answer stands. I like Shadow. Winston, truth or dare?"  
"Dare."  
"I dare you to only talk in random noises from the rest of the game."  
He moos like a cow and at me and I smile. He points to me.  
"Are you asking me truth or dare?" He nods. "Alright. Dare." He points to me and then to Newt and then makes kissing noises and faces. "You want me to kiss Newt?" He nods again. I look over at Newt.  
"What if I don't agree to that?" He asks  
"Then too bad." I say and then I grab the collar of his shirt and pull him towards me. I press my lips to his for a few seconds before letting go of him and pulling away. His face is bright red.  
"So you like Newt!" Winston practically yells.  
"No, slinthead. You dared her to kiss him, so she did." Minho says for me.  
"Oh..." Winston says.  
"And you just lost." I tell him.  
"How does someone loose at Truth or Dare?" He asks.  
"By not going through with the dare, not answering the truth, or giving up on the dare. You just stopped doing what I dare you to do and that counts as giving up so you lost." I explain to him.  
"Oh klunk." He says right as Zart falls to the ground next to us, gasping for air.  
"I did... Your shucking... Dare." He pants out as I throw him his clothes. Once he is fully dressed and recovered he sits down next to me.  
"So what did I miss?" He asks.  
"Well Echo likes Shadow and Winston made weird noises and then Echo kissed Newt and then Winston lost the game." Chuck blurts out.  
"What? You kissed Newt?" Zart says and looks at me for an explanation.  
"It was a dare. Anyway. Zart, truth or dare."  
"Dare."  
"I dare you to give me one free day from work and I get to choose which day to use it."  
He sighs. "Fine. Minho, truth or dare?"  
"Dare."  
"I dare you to give me a piggy back ride to my bed."  
Minho stands up and squats down in front of Zart to happily hops onto his back.  
"I am getting tired too. I think I am gonna head to bed." I tell Newt.  
"Good idea." He says and then all of us make our way into the Homestead.


	11. The Revalation

_I watch as the arrow buries itself in the Builders cheek. He falls to the ground and I look away.  
A minute later I open my eyes again and see the beautiful girl from the Slammer, the boy who was being attacked by the Builder, and Zart. Somehow I know that we are hiding from something. Something big and mean and scary. Out of no where this claw-like-thing reaches down and grabs Zart. I hear him scream and have to bite down on my tongue to keep myself from crying out. I squeeze my eyes shut and wait for the one to take me too, but it never happens.  
I open my eyes and stand to find myself in an unfamiliar place. When I look around I see that almost half of the Gladers are standing around me with weapons in their hands. I notice the guy who was hiding with us in the last scene is standing to my right and the beautiful girl is standing next to him. Who are they? Why do they keep showing up? I look straight forward and see a group of Grievers standing a few yards in front of us. We are in the Maze! Why are we in the Maze? I see a movement to my right and shift my focus to it. It's Alby. He is running right at the Grievers.  
"Alby no!" I yell, but it is too late. I look away and feel a tear slip down my cheek as I hear the monsters of the Maze rip him apart.  
When I don't hear anything anymore I look up. This time I am in another unfamiliar place. There are about 20 Gladers standing around me, including the beautiful girl and the boy who keep showing up. There are people in white lab coats who are watching us through a window and one woman standing in front of us with Gally. Before I get a chance to figure out what is going on, Gally grabs a knife and throws it at the guy I don't know. The boy doesn't move a muscle as the knife flies towards his chest. He is completely frozen. Before the blade reaches his chest Chuck jumps in front of him. This time I can't stop myself from screaming as the talkative kid that I have befriended falls to the floor with the hilt of the knife protruding from his chest. The guy who was frozen only moments ago is now completely breaking down and crying over Chucks body. I can't take it anymore! I can't take all of this death! I fall to the ground and scream._

I wake up in bed gasping for air. When I look around I see that everyone is still sound asleep, which means that I didn't scream in real life. I rub my face and find that, surprisingly, my cheeks are dry, so I didn't cry either. Without bothering to get my shoes, I run out of the Homestead. As I run I seethe deaths of my friends on repeat in my head. My legs grow weak and I collapse onto the ground in the middle of the Glade. I want to scream, but I don't to wake up the entire Glade. Instead I start punching the ground as hard as I can. I punch it over and over again until my hands feel broken and bruised. I keep punching it until two hand wrap around my wrists and keep me from doing it anymore.  
"Hey! Stop that! What's got you so worked up?" I hear Shadow's voice say. Instead of answering him, I turn around and wrap my arms around his waist, hugging him tightly and crying into his chest. He sits down next to me and pulls me onto his lap. Then he holds me gently and strokes my back to calm me down. There's a little voice in the back of my head that is telling me to look at him. To find out who he is once and for all, but I ignore it. That doesn't matter right now. Once I am done crying I keep my head pressed against his chest and answer his question.  
"I had another dream."  
"What was this one about?"  
"Death. So much death."  
"Well it's over now. You're okay. Why do these dreams freak you out so much? They are just dreams."  
"I don't think they are."  
"So They are memories or something?"  
"No. That's not it either."  
"Oh please don't try to tell me that you are having dreams of the future." I nod and he sighs. "Have any of them come true yet?"  
"Two of them."  
"Which ones?"  
"The first ones. There was the one with Chuck being terrified and hiding in the Deadheads and the one of him being all alone right before we played Truth or Dare last week."  
"And in the one you just had... People died?" I nod." How many?"  
"Four, but the difference in the number of Gladers that were at each one tells me that it's gonna be a lot more than that."  
He sighs again and I hug him closer. "Let's not worry about it right now." He says. "It's not happening anytime soon right?"  
"There were two people there that I didn't recognize, so about 2 Greenies from now."  
"Alright. Then let's wait until then to worry about it."  
"Good that." I agree. Then I laugh a little.  
"What's so funny?" He asks.  
"I guess Minho was wrong. Your not an imaginary friend." I say as I poke his stomach. His muscles tense slightly as he laughs too. His laugh sounds familiar...  
"I guess he was." Shadow says, but his voice is different. That voice... I know that voice. Now I can't stop myself from looking at his face. As I crane my neck up to look at him I immediately recognize the familiar tan skin, strong, lean body, and black hair. Minho.

 **AN: If you guys could comment your reactions that would be amazing! I would love to hear them! I want to know if I did a good job with the reveal or not and what I could have done to make it better! Thank you all so much!**


	12. The Truth

"Minho" I say a little breathlessly. "You're Shadow?"  
"Yeah." He says simply.  
"Why didn't you tell me?"  
"I don't know. I guess I just thought it would be best if you didn't know it was me."  
I start to panic a little bit. "What now? Will you stop being Shadow? What if I have another dream? Will still come?! Will you still listen!? Will you still comfort me!?" I ask, my voice getting more and more frantic with each question.  
"Slim it! Your gonna wake up the whole shucking Glade!"  
"Sorry..."  
"If you want me to come or need me to come, I will. Okay?" I let out a sigh of relief and nod. "Good." He says as he stands up. I look up at him from the ground where I am still curled up in a ball. "The sun is about to rise." He says before running off and leaving me all alone in the middle of the Glade. I lie down in the sun rise. A few minutes later I see Newt standing over me.  
"You're not dead are you?" He asks and holds his hand out.  
"Nope. Still alive." I say, taking his hand and letting him help me up.  
"What were you doing lying in the grass?"  
"Watching the sun rise."  
He nods his head. "Had another dream?"  
"Yup."  
"And another heart to heart with Shadow?"  
"Yup."  
"Still trying to figure out who he is?"  
"Yup." I lie to him. I decided that it would be best if everyone still thought Shadow's identity was a mystery. I also decided to keep the content of the dreams and the fact that they are coming true a secret from everyone. He falls silent and so do I. We walk the rest of the way to the Homestead in silence. We grab some breakfast and make our way over to the picnic table.  
"Why were you just laying down out there? We all though you had died or something." Winston says immediately.  
"I was fine. I just wanted to watch the sunrise." I tell them.  
"That's bull klunk." Newt says. "She had another bloody dream." I glare at him as Winston says,  
"Oooh! What was this one about?"  
"Nothing." I tell him.  
"Oh come on! You never tell us what happens in them!" He complains.  
"Yeah. Why don't you ever tell us what happens in them?" I hear Zart's voice say as he walks up. The second I hear his voice I hear his screams echoing through my head again. He sits down in front of me and gives me a concerned look. I must look like I have seen a ghost, which, in a way, I have.  
"I have to go..." I manage to say as I stand up.  
"But you haven't your food." Winston says.  
"I'm not hungry." I say as I take off towards the Deadheads. I climb the tree I normally do and force myself to breath. A little while later I hear footsteps. The stop under the tree and don't him a chance to speak before I star rambling on.  
"I can't do it. I just can't. I can't hang around them like this. I can't be friends with them. I can't lose them! I know that it's selfish and that I should try to make the rest of their lives good and happy and fun, but I just can't do it! I can't look at them everyday without seeing their deaths and hearing their screams on repeat in my head! I can't, I can't, I can't, I can't, I can't!" I know I must sound insane right now, but I don't care.  
"Those dreams really messed you up didn't they?" I hear a voice say and I freeze. That's not Shadow's or Minho's voice. Oh klunk. Minho has probably already gone into the Maze for the day. That's not him down there. It's Newt. And I just basically told him everything.  
"Klunk." I say out loud.  
"You thought I was Shadow?" He asks. I nod. "Well I'm not. And now I know for a fact that you aren't okay and that these dreams are serious klunk. So get down here and tell me everything."  
Reluctantly, I climb down. Mumbling to myself I say, "I am so shucking stupid. I should have know that wasn't Shadow."  
"Why?" Newt asks. Klunk. His hearing must be better than I thought.  
"Because I can never hear Shadows footsteps" I tell him. "He is always completely silent when he walks. I could hear you coming. I could hear your limp. Gosh. I am a shucking idiot."  
"Yeah. You are. Now start talking."  
I start from the beginning, the very first dream and end with the one I just had, but I don't tell him who died. Though he can probably guess that Zart dies. I also leave out the fact that I know who Shadow is.  
"The first dream you had was about a week before Chuck showed up."  
"Yeah."  
"But Chuck was in it."  
"Yeah."  
"And what happened in the dream happened in real life."  
"Mhm."  
"So you're having dreams of the future?"  
"That's right."  
"In the one you just had people died."  
"Yep."  
"Who?"  
"I can't tell you."  
"What do you mean you can't tell me?"  
"Exactly what I said. I can't tell you."  
"Why not?"  
"Because you might mess it up."  
"Mess it up?! You mean by keeping them from dying?!"  
"Yeah."  
"How's that a bad thing?!" His voice keeps getting more and more frustrated.  
"Because it could mess up a sequence of events that are supposed to happen." I say calmly.  
"What do you mean?"  
"I'm not sure. I'm just following my gut instinct."  
"So your just gonna let these people die?!"  
"Well of course I am going to try to stop it to some extent, but if I do too much It could throw everything out of balance and even more people or more important people might end up dead."  
"'More important people'? You mean that we can sacrifice some, but not others?"  
"What I mean, is that we can lose some people and recover, but if we lose others we might not be able to. Let's say that I let you do something to save one person and then for whatever reason you wind up dead. We cannot lose you _AND_ Alby. We will fall apart."  
Newt falls silent. "What do you mean _AND_ Alby?" I don't reply. "Alby is one of the people who dies. Isn't he?" I still don't answer. "Isn't he!?" Newt practically yells and I can see tears forming in his eyes at the thought of loosing his friend. I nod. He takes a deep breath and blinks away the tears.  
"Who else knows about this?" He asks calmly.  
"Shadow knows about the dreams being real, but not who dies. Other than him only you and I know."  
"Good. Don't tell anyone else. How long do we have? Do you know?"  
"There were two people I have never seen before, so about two Greenies from now."  
"Alright. No one else hears about this. Understood?"  
"Yes sir."  
"Good that." He says before walking away.


	13. Music

I spent the whole day avoiding Zart, Chuck, and Alby. During lunch I managed to find the Builder that died. His name is Ben.I get to dinner early and eat most of my food before Zart gets there. I can calm myself down enough to be able to sit with him, but I lost my appetite. We sit and eat and talk for a while before Winston says,  
"We should play a game."  
"Another game of Truth or Dare?" Zart suggests.  
Newt shakes his head. "I don't wanna have to lick your face again."  
"Maybe Echo should sing us a song." Winston says.  
"That's not a game slinthead." Minho says.  
"We could make it a game." Zart tells us.  
"How?" Newt asks.  
"We could give her a senario and she would have to come up with a song that represents her reaction." Everyone looks him weird. "Like... Someone asks you how you feel. Now you have to respond in a song."  
"Oh. Umm..." I say thinking. Then I smile.

"I feel pretty, oh so pretty  
I feel pretty, and witty, and gay  
and I pity, any girl who isn't today"

"There's no way that's a real song." Minho says.  
"It is! I can sing the rest of it if you want." I say smirking at him.  
"No thank you. Let's move on." Minho says laughing.  
"You just had a really bad break up." Winston says.  
I think for a few seconds and then a song comes to mind.

"I dug my key into the side  
Of his pretty little suped up 4 wheel drive,  
Carved my name into his leather seats.  
I took a Louisville slugger to both headlights,  
Slashed a hole in all 4 tires.  
Maybe next time he'll think before he cheats."

"Someone threatens you." Minho says right away and I hardly have to think at all before I know what I am gonna sing.

"Hit me with your best shot  
Why don't you hit me  
With your best shot  
Hit me with your best shot  
Fire Away"

"Someone says something you don't like." Newt says and I laugh a little.  
Umm..." I say, thinking.

"Covering my ears like a kid  
When your words mean nothing I go la la la  
I'm turning up the volume when you speak  
If my heart can't stop it, I find a way to block it, I go  
La la, la la la la la la la la la la,  
La la la la, la la la la la la la la la la  
La la, la la la la la la la la la la,  
La la la la, la la la la la la la la la la"

"Someone asks you where you're going." Minho says.

"I'm on the highway to hell  
Highway to hell  
I'm on the highway to hell  
Highway to hell"

"Someone asks you where you want to go." Newt asks

"When I am with you, there's no place I'd rather be  
N-n-n-no, no, no, no place I'd rather be  
N-n-n-no, no, no, no place I'd rather be  
N-n-n-no, no, no, no place I'd rather be"

"Your insane." Zart says

"I'm insane  
Well, I can feel it in my bones  
Coursing through my veins  
When did I become so cold?  
For goodness sakes  
Where is my self control?  
If home is where my heart is  
Then my heart has lost all hope"

"Someone asks you why you did something." Newt says

"Oh, there ain't no rest for the wicked  
Money don't grow on trees  
I got bills to pay  
I got mouths to feed  
And ain't nothing in this world for free  
No I can't slow down  
I can't hold back  
Though you know I wish I could  
No there ain't no rest for the wicked  
Until we close our eyes for good"

"Someone asks you what you want to eat." Winston says, smiling victoriously. I smirk at him.

"It's peanut butter jelly time  
peanut butter jelly time  
peanut butter jelly  
peanut butter jelly"

Winston punches the table, Minho smirks a little, Newt looks impressed and Zart is staring silently, eyes wide and mouth open. I laugh.  
"Wow." Is all that Zart can say.  
"I am impressed." Newt says.  
"Yeah. Me too." Zart and Winston say at he same time. They look at each other and I giggle.  
"Yeah. How do you know all those songs?" Minho asks.  
"Why is there a song about peanut butter jelly time?" Winston asks, still upset that he didn't stump me.  
"I don't. I just know them all. And apparently someone wanted to write a song about peanut butter jelly time." I tell them. "I'm gonna call it a night. See you boys tomorrow." I say before walking away.

 **AN: The songs she sings are: I Feel Pretty by Natalie Wood from the musical West Side Story, Before He Cheats by Carrie Underwood, Hit Me With Your Best Shot by Pat Benatar, La La Latch by Sam Smith, Highway To Hell by AC/DC, Rather Be by Clean Bandit, I'm Not A Vampire by Falling In Reverse, Ain't No Rest For The Wicked by Cage The Elephant, and Peanut Butter Jelly Time by Buckwheat Boyz.**


	14. Remembering

_I am in a place that is unfamiliar again. This one is different than the others though. Just like in the others I am in my own body, but this time I don't seem to be in control of my own actions. I also notice that I am younger, maybe by a year or two. Alby is standing in front of me and somehow I know that we are saying goodbye. He looks a little younger too... Maybe this is a memory...  
"I wish you could keep your memories." I hear myself say.  
"We have to forget. You know that." Alby tells me, his voice not quite as harsh as it is in the Glade.  
"Yeah I know." I say. Then I smile. "Do good out there. We'll be watching." What did I mean by that?  
"Of course he'll do good! There's no way he could fail!" Someone yells behind me. I turn around and smile at the crowd of people behind me and laugh. Some of them are Gladers that I know, but a few of them are people I have never seen before.  
Alby chuckles and pushes my arm playfully. "Good luck being the new girl again."  
"If I could handle it the first time I can handle it again. Besides, I shouldn't be in there very long before Thomas and Teresa show up. Then I won't be the new girl anymore."  
He chuckles again. "Yeah, I know. Your one tough girl Echo."  
"Hell yeah I am."  
"Hey stop hogging him! The rest of us wanna say bye too!" Someone else shouts from behind me. I turn around and stick my tongue out at the person. A few people laugh and I back away from Alby as everything starts to fade.  
When it all comes back I am in the same place, but now I am facing Minho, and I know that we are alone.  
"Promise me you'll be safe in there." I say to him.  
"I wont remember it." He reminds me.  
"I know, but I need to hear you say it."  
"I promise that I wont do anything __**too**_ _stupid." He says and smiles as I roll my eyes. "I'll be fine. You know me. I can handle anything." I sigh and look down as I feel a tear slip down my cheek. He puts his hand on my cheek and I look up at him as he wipes the tear away. He leans forward until our lips are almost touching. "I promise that I will survive the Maze and see you again." He says and then closes the gap between us. Our lips are touching for a few glorious seconds before he pulls away to look at me. "You know what the best part of all this is?" He asks and when I don't answer he continues. "We'll get to fall in love all over again." This time I am the one who kisses him. As I wrap my arms around his neck the scene fades away and I am left standing alone.  
When everything comes back I am in the same place again, this time I am with Newt and a bunch of the Gladers.  
"We'll miss you Newt!" Someone behind me says  
"Hell yeah we'll miss him!" Someone else says.  
"Look out for Minho and Alby and them, okay?" I tell him.  
"Of course I will." He says as he walks over to hug some of us. I notice that he doesn't limp as he walks. That must mean that he got it in the Maze. When he hugs me I whisper, "Stay safe." in his ear and then everything fades away again.  
Now I am standing with some of the Gladers and Winston. He hugs me and I laugh a little and say,  
"Hey, maybe being in the Maze will help get rid of some of your acne."  
Everyone laughs and the sound echos all around me as the memory fades.  
I am surrounded by Gladers again and I see Zart standing in front of me. I want to walk away or look away or cry or something, but I can't. I'm still not in control of my own body.  
"Good luck in there." I say to him.  
"Good luck in __**here**_ _." He says jokingly. "You guys still have to deal with this place." He laughs and hugs me as the scene fades away for the last time tonight._


	15. Figuring Things Out

I sit up in bed and then lay back down. I don't want to get up, but I need to clear my head and I can't do that in here. So I sit up again, slip my shoes on, and walk out of the Homestead. I follow my usual routine of going to the tree and climbing up. Then I sit and think. Those dreams had to have been memories of saying goodbye to them right before their memories were wiped. What did I mean when I told Alby that we'd be watching? What did Minho mean when he said that we'd fall in love all over again? Were we in love? Are we in love? No... Minho and I... No... That would never happen... Right? I groan in confusion and put my head in my hands.  
"Why are you frustrated?" I hear Shadow's voice ask from below.  
"I'm not." I tell him.  
"Then what are you?"  
"Confused."  
"Why are you confused?" I am about to tell him when I remember that I know who he is. That's Minho. I feel heat rise to my cheeks as I remember my dream. I need someone to talk to about this, but it can't be him. Not this time Instead of answering I look down at him to find that he is still hiding in the shadows.  
"Come out of the shadows, Shadow. I know who you are, remember?"  
He steps out of the dark and into a space that is lit by moonlight and I climb down out of the tree. I drop down next to him and he asks again,  
"Why are you confused? Did you have another dream?"  
"Yeah, but this one was different."  
"How so?"  
"We were younger in this one, by a couple of years it looked like. And we were different. We were more... relaxed. Softer. More like regular teenagers than dirty, stinky Gladers. And we were saying goodbye and talking about how none of us would remember anything and how we needed to stay safe in the Maze." I almost tell him about the part he was in, but I stop myself. He doesn't say anything so I continue. "I think that this one was a memory. A memory of me saying goodbye to my friends before they lost their memories and got sent here." I am praying that it is too dark for him to see my blush as I once again remember saying bye to him. He still doesn't say anything so I keep going, more cautious this time, because I know he has a short fuse. "The weirdest part was that we knew what we were doing. Everyone that I saw was getting their memories wiped willing. Alby was talking about it being necessary and-"  
"That's bull klunk." Minho says in an angry, but calm voice that terrifies me. "None of us would ever do this to ourselves willingly."  
I decide to keep talking, praying that he won't blow up in my face. "Well you were." I talk in a calm, smooth voice, trying to be as gentle as possible as if I am trying to talk someone out of doing something awful. "We all also seemed to know a lot more about the outside world and possibly the Creators than we do now. Maybe we were okay with it at the time because everything had been explained to us. We don't have the full story right now, nothing even close to it, so this seems awful to us, but-"  
"I know enough of the story." He says, visibly having trouble staying calm.  
"No, Minho, you don't. You can't possibly know the whole story when you are cooped up in here. None of us can." I say, my voice getting louder as I try to get my point across.  
"We are trapped in a Glade, surrounded by an ever changing and unsolvable Maze and you are supporting the people who put us here!" He yells. I almost flinch at his words, but I refuse to back down on this. He needs to understand.  
"I'm not supporting the Creators, I am trying to make sense of this and you aren't helping at all!" I yell back. "We did this willingly to ourselves, Minho! There must be a reason! This must be of some significance, otherwise we wouldn't have agreed to it!"  
"There's no way I agreed to it!"  
"I saw you with my own eyes and it sure looked like you were totally okay with it! We both were! The only issue we had was-" I stop myself before I say anymore. He is still fuming with anger.  
"What?" He yells and I don't respond. I wont tell him. After the way he is reacting to all of this, there is no way I am telling him. "What issue did we have?" He says stepping closer to me. I flinch away slightly and see the slightest bit of regret in his eyes, but it is gone quickly. Then I hear footsteps behind me and break eye contact with Minho to turn around. When I do I see Newt limping towards us. My first thought is to ask him about the limp, but I decide that now isn't the best time.  
"What the hell are you shanks yelling about? You woke up the whole bloody Glade." He says.  
Before I can respond Minho starts walking back to the Homestead. Right before he is out of sight he turns around and glares at me. His eyes filled with anger and something else that I can't quite place. "Go on Echo. Tell him what we're yelling about. You already told him everything about the other dreams, so why not tell him about this one? Hell, maybe he can even be Shadow from now on." Minho says angrily before he storms off towards the Homestead. How did he know that I told Newt about the dreams? I thought that he had already gone into the Maze when I did that. I feel guilt rise up inside of me, though I'm not sure why. It's not like the dreams were our little secret or something.  
"What was that all about?" Newt asks me.  
"I don't know. I'm just so confused." I say as I sit down on the ground and lean up against the tree.  
"Why did he know about the dreams? You said no one else knows."  
"Yeah. No one besides you, me and Shadow."  
"Wait... That was Shadow? Minho is Shadow?"  
"Yeah. I was surprised too."  
"What were you guys fighting about?"  
"The dream I just had."  
"Do you want to talk about it."  
"After the way that Shadow reacted, I'm not sure."  
"Yeah, but Shadow is Minho and Minho is hotheaded. I'm not. Now come on. Spill it. What did you dream about?" He says, taking a seat next to me. I don't even think twice about it before telling him everything. Well... Almost everything. I leave out the little thing between Mnho and I. Even after I am done telling him about the dream I keep talking. I tell him word for word what I told Minho and Minho's reaction.  
"Did we really do this willingly?" Newt asks after I am done.  
"That's what it looked like."  
"Okay."  
"'Okay'? That's it?"  
"Yeah. I trust you. Besides, you make a good point about there being a reason. I know for a fact that I wouldn't do this for fun. And anyway, what happened, happened. There's no point in stressing over it now."  
"Okay then. Now it's your turn to spill it." I say, my curiosity winning out. "How did you get your limp? And don't try to tell me that it was before you got here so you don't know. You didn't have it in the dream, so you got it here. What happened?"  
"The Maze happened." He says grimly before standing up and walking away.


	16. The Party

It's been three days since I've talked to Minho. He keeps avoiding me. There's a small part of me that is worried that he won't show up if I have another dream. What worries me even more is the thought of never talking to him again. Newt and I don't sit with them for meals anymore since I can't be around Zart very much and Minho refuses to talk to me. Some supplies came up today. I got that guitar I made a request for last week. It's been 2 weeks since the kid came up and he still has no friends. I feel like it's my fault that he never made friends. I should have helped him fit in more, but instead I deserted him. I wonder what he thinks of me. Does he think I am an awful person? A coward? Or maybe he is just confused and doesn't know what to think.  
"Hello! Earth to Echo!" Newt says while waving a hand in my face.  
"What?" I ask stupidly.  
He rolls his eyes. "Did you hear any of that?"  
"No..." I say sheepishly.  
He sighs. "Still feeling guilty that you wont talk to them?"  
I nod. "What were you saying?"  
"Nothing important." He looks down at my untouched plate of food. "Are you going to eat?"  
"Yeah."  
"Well hurry it up then. We can't just stay up all night. You have to sleep eventually."  
"Then you go to bed. I will go when I am done."  
"No. I'm not leaving you alone out here. You might do something stupid."  
I roll my eyes. "You faith me in is so comforting."  
"I wasn't trying to comfort you. I was just letting you know that I'm not leaving you alone."  
"Well thank you Newt." I say as I look down at my food. "I changed my mind. I'm not hungry. See you in the morning." I say as I stand up to walk to the Homestead. Before I can get there I hear someone call my name. I turn around to see Chuck walking towards me. I freeze up and can't move a muscle as he comes closer. When he get to me he smiles.  
"Hey Echo." He says. All I can manage is a small nod. "Do you think that you could sing another song for us? Like the one you sang on my First day here." He asks me.  
"Umm..." I choke our, still feeling frozen in place. A song... That's it! That's what I need! A song will help me calm down and be less stiff. "Sure." I finally tell him.  
His smile gets even wider and he runs back to the rest of the the Gladers. "Hey everyone!" He yells excitedly. "Echo's gonna sing us a song!"  
I run into the Homestead to grab my guitar and by the time I am back outside almost everyone is in a big circle. As I walk into the center of it I get nervous. I stop in the center and tune the guitar quickly, already knowing with song I want to play. Once I am done I play the first few notes and start singing.

""Oh don't you dare look back.  
Just keep your eyes on me."  
I said, "You're holding back, "  
She said, "Shut up and dance with me!"  
This woman is my destiny  
She said, "Ooh-ooh-hoo,  
Shut up and dance with me..."

As I sing and play I watch my friends dancing and laughing and having fun. Before long I can feel myself starting to relax. Newt walks over to stand next to me. During the chorus when everyone else is singing along I take a break to talk to Newt.  
"You gonna dance?" I ask him.  
"Can't." He replies, gesturing to his bad leg.  
"Then sing." I tell him before I start singing again. I raise my eyebrows at him and he rolls his eyes. After a few encouraging nudges from me, he finally starts singing along. I smile and watch everyone dancing around me. I find Minho sitting in the back of the crowd. We make eye contact and he frowns before standing up and walking away. When the song is over Chuck walks up to me.  
"Can you sing another one?" The Greenie asks.  
"Sorry kid. Not tonight. I'm too tired." I say without looking at him. Before he can say something else I turn and walk back to the Homestead. I lay down on my bed and force myself to calm down before reluctantly falling asleep.


	17. Family

_I am sitting on a carpeted floor in a small room. There is a little boy sitting next to me. As young as he is, I am younger. Just like the last dream, I am not in control of my own actions. This must be another memory. We are playing with blocks, building things with them. The two of us look almost nothing alike, but somehow I know that this boy is my brother. We smile and laugh and play for a minute or two before I notice her. A woman, our mother, is crying. I poke my brothers arm and then point to my mother.  
"Why is mommy crying?" I hear my small voice ask him. I see the joy drain out of his eyes and the smile that had lit up his face only moments before, disappeared.  
"Because daddy is sick and she might be too." He tells me.  
"Where's daddy?"  
"He had to leave."  
"When is he coming back?"  
"I don't think he is."  
I look sadly at my sobbing mother and everything around me fades away.  
This time I am in another room, sitting between my mom and my brother. A strange man in a dark suit is sitting in front of us on a couch. The man is talking to my mom about some group called WICKED. Telling her that my brother is immune. He tells her that my brother and I are necessary for finding a cure. In the end out mother let us go. She tells us that she loves us and is proud of us. I start crying and my brother holds me close as the dream fades away. _

I wake up and my first thought is that I have a brother. I don't bother to wonder what he is immune to or who WICKED is. The only thing that is on my mind is my brother. Is he one of the Gladers? Which one? I look around at all of the sleeping Gladers, but non of them look anything like the boy in my dream. Finally I get up and climb out of bed. Once my shoes are on I walk out of the Homestead and jog to the tree. For a while I just sit in it and think to myself. Then I hear a noise from below and my heart picks up speed.  
"Shadow?" I ask hopefully, but there is no reply. "Shuck it!" I yell and punch the tree. "Minho. If you are there, please come out of the shadows or say something." Silence. "Great. Now I really am just talking to myself... Immunity..." I say out loud to my self, thinking about the dream. "What are people immune to? Disease. I would have to be a serious one . One that is killing a lot of people. Why else would they need children who are immune? Why would they need kids who aren't immune? Why would they need both types of children...? A control group. Maybe it was for an experiment. That would explain why they needed both types. My brother. He is immune. Who is he? He's got to be one of the Gladers. Right? That would depend on who WICKED is. If they are the Creators then my brother must be a Glader. But which one? None of them look like him. Maybe he isn't here yet. Maybe he is one of the future Greenies. Who is WICKED? No one would just name their organization WICKED. It must stand for something. WICKED... WICKED... WICKED... What are some words that begin with W? While. Wall. World. Word. Water. Watermelon. Whale. Which, what where, why. Way. Whatever. Wacko... The next letter in WICKED is I. What starts with I? If, it, in, I. Igloo. Ice. Immortal. Immune. Indecisive. Insane... C. The next letter is C. Control. Contain. Contagious. Congruent. Condescending. Clarify. CLarification. Catastrophe. Cow. Chase. Cat. Confused. Confusing. Came, come, can. Crazy... What's next? K. Kill. Kite. Kettle. Keep. Kit. Key. Kitten. Kibble. Knot, know, knee, knife, knock. Kick. Kiss. Kooky... Next is E. Words that start with E. Elephant. Eel. Eagle. Electric. Evil. Energy. Eloquent. Entire. Easy. Either. Erase. Echo. Exit. Egg. Enter. Enlighten. Enigma. Everyone. Experiment. Eccentric... The last letter is D. Debut. Ditto. Drip. Drop. Daisy. Dainty. Dorky. Dog. Dark. Duck. Dumb. Delirious. Deranged..." I groan in frustration. "I will come back to that."  
"Who are you talking to?"  
"What? No one. I was just talking to myself. Shadow didn't show up so I had no one else to talk to."  
"Well you can talk to me about it while you work. Now come on. Breakfast is almost over."  
The sun is up? I look around and see the sunlight peaking through the trees. Wow. I can't believe I missed the sunset. "It's okay. I'm not hungry anyway." I tell him as I hop to the ground.  
"You're never hungry. You're gonna bloody starve yourself."  
"No I wont. I'm fine."  
"Don't pull that bull klunk with me. You are not okay."  
I roll my eyes. "Aright fine. I'm not okay. Not at all. I constantly have stuff eating away from the inside and I want it all to stop." I say sarcastically. "Is that better."  
Newt frowns at me. "Just go to the Garden." He says before walking away.


	18. Names

It's probably close to midnight. I lay in my bed staring up at the ceiling, not allowing myself to fall asleep. I have realized that with each dream it gets harder and harder to fall asleep. Not that I want to. It's gotten to the point where I try to stay up all night in an attempt to avoid having another dream. Unfortunately, it's impossible for someone to go their whole life without sleep, so eventually sleep always wins out and grabs hold of me.

 _"Mary." A woman's voice says. Somehow I know that she is talking to me, but I feel a stubbornness rise up in me and refuse to answer. The lady lets out a frustrated noise. "Why isn't she responding?"  
"She doesn't like the name." Say a different woman.  
"She is a child. How can she just pick and choose which name she wants?" Says the first lady. At the mention of me being a child I look at my body. I was probably the same age, if not a little older, than I was in the last dream. I am sitting with my back to them playing with a few instruments that are sitting out in front of me.  
"They are supposed to be brilliant aren't they?" Asks Lady #2  
"Yes, but this is ridiculous. She has already refused the names Martha, Leah, Ruth, Rebecca, and Eve. How many more are we going to have to go through. " Lady #1 complains  
"I don't know. Let's just move on to the next one already." Lady #2 suggests.  
"Ester." Lady #1 says and again I ignore her and focus on the sound of the small bass drum as it echos off the walls. "Ester. Come on. Don't you like the name Ester?" I move to the snare drum and play it as loud as I can to drown out the sound of her voice. "Are you sure she isn't deaf?"  
"She has passed all of our hearing tests." Lady #2 informs her.  
"Is there anyway to get her stop all of that banging? It's annoying." Lady #1 says, still complaining.  
"Maybe instead of trying biblical names we should try musical names." Lady #2 says, making another smart suggestion.  
The women don't talk for a while. Then I hear Lady #2's voice say,  
"Emma. Do you like the name Emma?" I dont respond. "What about Kate? Anna? Elanor? Jessie?" I still don't respond. Instead I move to the bongos and start playing a simple beat. "Goodness! Will this child ever stop with that noise?! It rebounds off the walls!" Lady #1 screeches.  
"Yes." Lady #2 agrees. "These walls do seem to echo a lot."  
I turn my head around to look at them. One of them gasps and grabs the others arm.  
"She likes it!" The gasping woman says, her voice letting me know that she is Lady #1. "Repeat each word you said slowly. Give her time to react to each one."  
Lady #2 looks at me strangely. "Yes. These. Walls. Do. Seem. To. Echo." My small ears like the sound of the word. I turn myself fully around to face them and Lady #2 smiles. "That's it. Echo." I smile at her and she laughs.  
Lady #1 sighs in relief. "Finally. We can move on. Come on then Echo. Follow me." I stand up to follow her and the world starts to fade._

I wake up and almost laugh out loud. They wanted to name me Mary! There's no reason for me to get up. That dream wasn't freaky or confusing or stressful, but if I do leave then there is a chance that Shadow will show up. I sit up, get my shoes on, and quietly slip out of the Homestead and into the Deadheads. I sit in the tree and then think about what to do to pass the time until Shadow comes or the sun comes up. In the end I decide to sing quietly to myself. I barely even get through the chorus of the song of my choice before the sun begins filling the Glade with morning light. I sigh and hop down out of the tree. As I walk out of the Deadheads I see Newt walking towards me and smile. At least he is watching out for me while Shadow is gone.  
"Hey Newt." I say  
"Another dream?" He asks.  
"Yup."  
"Shadow still a no show?" I nod. "Do yo want to try talking to him?"  
I look over at the table where Minho is sitting with Winston. "Yes." I say before jogging towards them.  
"Hey guys!" I say as I reach them. Without even glancing at me Minho gets up and runs off. "Why did he run off like that?" I ask Winston.  
"Because he's a Runner and he needs to get into the Maze." I nod a little and start walking away, but he starts talking again. "What's up with you these days? You only ever talk to Newt and the rest of us you just avoid. I thought we were your friends. What happened?"  
"I know. I'm sorry. It's just that Minho and I had this fight and Zart and Chuck... Well... I have other reasons for avoiding them. And your always with them so that makes it kinda hard to hang out with you."  
"What did you and Minho fight about?"  
"Nothing." I say quickly, not wanting to explain.  
"There you go again. Closing yourself off, not willing to talk to anyone about your problems."  
I look at him sadly. "I gotta go."  
Again, before I can stand up he starts talking. "You haven't even eaten anything."  
"I'm not hungry."  
"Your never hungry. Will you at least sit down and talk to me then. You don't have to eat, just try to have a conversation with your friend."  
I sigh, but smile at him. "Sure."


	19. Thomas

I jolt up in bed gasping with one word in my mind. Today. Standing above me is a surprised looking Newt.  
"Good. You're awake. You slept in late."  
"Yeah..."  
He gives me a concerned look. "You okay?"  
"Yeah.."  
"Well are you gonna get up?"  
"Yeah."  
"Is that all you can say?"  
I smile at him. "Yeah." He rolls his eye. "What's so special about today?" I ask him.  
"What do you mean?"  
"I mean, is there anything special going on today?"  
"Well the box is coming up with a new Greenie today."  
"A new Greenie?"  
"Yeah."  
"That's today?"  
"Yeah."  
I smile at him again. "Is that all you can say?"  
He laughs a little. "Yeah."  
"Cool. Now let's go eat. I'm starving."  
"That's a first. Are you sure you're okay? You seem downright cheery today and that ain't normal for you."  
"I'm fine. I just have a feeling that today is gonna be a good day. That's all."

Later that day I am standing around the Box with all the other Gladers. Standing right next to me are Newt, Gally, Alby, Chuck, and Minho. I haven't said a word to any of them the entire time I've been standing here. Finally the Box operns and I get a good look at the Newbie. I feel panic start to rise up in my chest as I realize that this is the boy from my dreams. He was in every dream that something bad happened in. I take a deep breath and shove the panic down, force myself to remain calm. If the Gladers see me freak out they will know that something isn't right. I could get myself and this Greenie banished if I'm not careful. I'll just have to wait and tell Newt later. Some Gladers lower a rope into the Box and pull the boy our. Alby grabs his hand to help him and says the first words that the boy will hear in his new life. "Nice to meet you shank. Welcome to the Glade."  
Everyone pitches in to help get him out of the Box and standing upright. The poor shank looks like he's freaking out as he takes in his surroundings.  
"Look at the Greenbean!" Gally says. "Gonna break his shuck neck checking out the new digs."  
"Shut your trap Gally." I say, giving him a glare. Ever since I had that dream of him killing Chuck I can't help but feel a strong surge of anger rise up in me every time I look at ugly face. At least with the other deaths it wasn't murder. Well... Ben is the exception. He was crazy though, trying to kill this Greenie who is currently looking at each Glader in turn. His gaze lingers on mine, he's probably wondering why I am the only girl. Then he turns and looks at Alby.  
"Where am I?" He asks in a voice that sounds different then I expected. He looks like his voice should be higher pitched than it is.  
"Nowhere good. Just slim yourself nice and calm." Alby tells him.  
"Gosh Alby. You're gonna freak him out even more saying stuff like that." I say just as someone from the crowd asks which Keeper he's gonna get.  
"I told ya, shuck face. He's a klunk so he'll be a Slopper. No doubt about it." Chuck says, laughing. A few Gladers laugh and I size the Greenie up.  
"I don't know kid. I think might make a pretty good Track-Hoe." I tell him.  
"Looks like Echo's got a crush on the Newbie!" I hear someone shout.  
"Shut your trap shuck face!" I yell back at him.  
Some more people laugh and the Greenie looks even more lost. As I size him up again I wonder, why him? Why is he the one who watches everyone die? Why is he the one who is there for all of them? Why is Ben going to attack him. There's gotta be something about him right? Something that explains why death seems to be tied to him in a double not. But what?  
"Shut your holes!" Alby yells, snapping me out of my train of thought. I have to force myself not to flinch at his harsh voice. "Keep yapping adn next break'll be cut in half!"  
That shuts everyone up. The Greenie looks at Alby and then at the Glade. He seems pretty overwhelmed by it all, but then again who wasn't on their First day. He loos at each of us in turn again, this time avoiding my gaze completely and focusing on Gally. The Keeper of the Builders looks more pissed off than I have ever seen him. Finally he breaks the Greenies gaze and stomps off to sit down on one of the picnic benches. Alby takes a step forward.  
"It's a long story shank." He tells the Greenie. "Piece by piece, you'll learn. I'll be taking you on the Tour tomorrow. Till then... Just don't break anything." Alby holds his hand out to the boy and introduces himself. The Greenie ignores his hand and pushes past him to sit under a tree.  
"Than tell me." The Greenie says. "Tell me the long story. Seriously. Where am I?" His voice gets less steady with each word.  
Alby walks over to him and sits down in front of him, the rest of us pack in close behind him. I can tell by the look on Alby's face that he's about to give the Greenie the 'if you ain't scared you ain't human' speech. He never had to give it me or Chuck. I guess the two of us were obviously pretty freaked out. Even if I did hold Minho hostage.  
"If you ain't scared, you ain't human." There it is. "Act any different and I'd throw you off the Cliff because it'd mean you're a psycho."  
"The Cliff?" The boy asks, looking more scared by the second. I sigh, but decide not to step in yet. I'll give Alby another chance to talk to this guy without making him klunk his pants. "  
"Shuck it." Alby says, understanding that he said something wrong. "Ain't no way to start these conversations, you get me? We don't kill shanks like you here. I promise. Just try and avoid _being_ killed, survive, whatever."  
The color drains from the boys face and I roll my eyes before stepping forward to stand beside him.  
"Save it for the Tour Alby. You're gonna give the guy a heart attack." I turn to the Greenie. "The name's Echo. This place" I say motioning all around me. "Is the Glade. It's where we live, eat, and sleep. We call ourselves the Gladers. That's about all you-"  
"Who sent me here?" The boy demands, cutting me off. I take a deep breath to control myself and keep myself from slapping this guy silly.  
Alby suddenly has the Greenie shirt in his hands and is holding him up by it."Get up, shank, get up!" Alby yells in the boys face as he scrambles to get his feet under him. "No interrupting boy! Whacker, if we told you everything right away, you'd die on the spot, right after you klunked your pants. Baggers'd drag you off and you ain't no good to us then are you?"  
"I don't even know what your talking about." The Greenie says.  
Newt steps forwards and grabs Alby by the shoulders. "Alby, lay off a bit. You're hurting more than helping you know."  
Alby lets go of the boy and steps back. "Ain't got time to be nice, Greenbean. Old life's over, new life's begun. Learn the rules quick, listen, don't talk. You get me?"  
The boy looks between Newt and I, asking with his eyes for help. "Greenie, you get him, right?" Newt asks him.  
"Yeah." He says.  
"Good that. First Day. That's what today is for you, shank. Nights coming. Runners'll be back soon. The Box came up late today, ain't got time for the Tour. Tomorrow morning, right after the wake up." He turns to Newt. "Get him a bed, get him to sleep."  
"Good that." Newt says  
"A few weeks, you'll be happy here. You'll be happy and helping. None of us knew jack on First Day, you neither. New life begins tomorrow." Wit that, Alby turns and walks off. The Greenie mumbles under his breath something that I didn't quite catch, but Newt seems to have heard it and looks about to respond. I grab his arm before he can.  
"Hey Newt, can I talk to the Greenie? Alone."  
He gives me a questioning look. "I don't know.."  
"He's in the dreams."  
"How many?"  
"All of them."  
He sighs. "You get 10 minutes."  
I nod and turn to the Greenie. "How would you like to go for a walk Greenie? Clear your head, talk a little."  
"Sure."  
"Good." I grab his arm and drag him into the Deadheads.  
"What are you doing?" He yells, struggling against my grip. Once we are in the middle of the Deadheads I let go of him and he stumbles back.  
"I just want to talk." I say calmly. "What's your name?"  
"Thomas." He says and I immediately recognize it as the name that Ben was yelling while he was attacking this shank. Ben was trying to convince Alby that Thomas is evil.  
"Evil?" I say to myself. "How are you evil? What's so evil about you?" I circle him. "You sure don't look evil."  
"What?" He asks, obviously starting to get creeped out. I walk closer to him and he backs up until he bumps into a tree. I get in his face and study him closely.  
"Who are you? Why does Ben think you're evil? Why are you always there?"  
"Who's Ben? Why am I always where? What are you even talking about?"  
"Never mind." I say, backing off and giving him room. "You must have a lot of questions. Ask away. I'll answer them if I can." A Beetle Blade moves in one of the nearby trees. He watches it curiously. "Beetle Blade. It wont hurt you. Don't worry."  
"Is this a prison?"  
I laugh as I walk over to a tree and sit down. "No. It's not a prison. At least... I don't think so." He doesn't look reassured. "Look Greenie. It isn't that bad here. I know how it must look right now, trust me, I've been in your position, all of us have, but once you get used to it, it can actually be pretty fun." I smile at him. "I'll show you. Come on!" I stand up and grab his hand and start dragging him back through the woods.  
"What are you doing?" Thomas asks.  
"Every now and then we have these little party-like-things. I see no reason why we can't have one tonight."


	20. Having Fun With The Greenie

p style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px; line-height: 24.48px;"As he follows me to the Homestead he continues to ask me questions. "Are you the only girl here?" He /"Yeah."br /"Why?"br /"I've got no idea. None of us do."br /He was about to ask something else when I see Newt and call him over. "Hey Newt! Round everyone up will you? I'm gonna sing a song to try and calm the Greenie down a bit."br /"Okay." He grabs my arm and pulls me close to whisper in my ear. "Who is this kid? What did he have to do with your dreams?"br /"I'll explain later, but there's not really much that we can do until the dreams start to happen in reality." I whisper before pulling away. "I'm gonna grab my guitar."br /"Good that." He lets my arm go and I run off into the Homestead. The second that I grab my guitar I hear an awful, blood curdling scream coming from above me. I almost completely forgot about Ben. He got stung by a Greiver and is going through what Newt called the Changing. It sounds awful. Apparently Gally went through it not too long before I came up in the Box. I walk out of the Homestead just as Newt walks /"What did you do with the Greenie?" I ask /"Sent him to Chuck." Is all he says before limping up the stairs. I walk over to one of the picnic tables and sit on the table with my feet resting on the bench. It takes almost no time at all for the Glade to get quiet. Because of that I can easily find everyone. Minho is in the back, Winston and Zart are in the middle, and Chuck is with the Greenie in the front of the crowd looking very excited at the fact that I am gonna sing. I almost blush now that I know that their attention is on me. I also see a group of Gladers off to the side wrestling with Gally. Well, might as well give them a song to fight to. Before I can chicken out I play the intro on my guitar and start singing./p  
p style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px; line-height: 24.48px; text-align: center;""Na na na na na na na na na na na na em[x2]/embr /br /I guess I just lost my husband,br /I don't know where he went,br /So I'm gonna drink my money,br /I'm not gonna pay his rent,br /I got a brand new attitude andbr /I'm gonna wear it tonight,br /I wanna get in trouble,br /I wanna start a fight,br /br /Na na na na na na na I wanna start a fight,br /Na na na na na na na I wanna start a /br /So, so whatbr /I'm still a rock star,br /I got my rock moves,br /And I don't need you,br /And guess what,br /I'm having more fun,br /And now that we're done,br /I'm gonna show you tonight,br /I'm alright,br /I'm just fine,br /And you're a tool,br /So, so what,br /I am a rock star,br /I got my rock moves,br /And I don't want you tonight. "/p  
p style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px; line-height: 24.48px;"As I sing, I can't help but search for Minho with my eyes. I find the Greenie first. He's dancing with Chuck and even though he's only dancing half heartily he is still pretty good. He still doesn't look very happy, but he definitely looks better than before. At least I can do something right when it comes to helping people. Finally the crowd of dancing Gladers parts enough for me to see Minho sitting at the back of the crowd, running a hand through his hair. He looks up and we make eye contact, but he just sighs and looks away again. I finish the song and try to find him again, but I don't see him anywhere. The Greenie ran off with Chuck to the Homestead a little while ago and now as I move past it the door flies open and the Greenie storms out, running right into me. Surprised, I'm not able to keep my balance and fall to the ground as Thomas trips and falls over /"What the Hell-" I start before turning to face the Greenie, who is still on top of me. When we are face to face I realize how close we are and can feel my cheeks heating up. I hear some whistles and cat-calls come from a few of the Gladers and glare at /"So-sorry." Thomas stutters stuttersbr /"Don't apologize Greenie. Just get off me." I tell him rudely, trying to make sure that the other boys understand that I am not happy. He obeys and stands up, holding his hand out to help /I swat his hand away. "I don't need your help, shank. You knocked me down, you didn't hurt me."br /"Oh. Okay. "br /"Where are you going in such a hurry anyway?"br /"I just wanted to get out of there."br /"I didn't ask emwhy/em you are in a hurry. I asked where you were going."br /"Oh. I was gonna meet Chuck at the tree."br /"The tree?" I ask, thinking of the one I camp out /"Yeah. The one I was sitting at before."br /"Oh, right. That tree. Well go on then. You don't want to keep him waiting."br /"Okay. See you later."br /br /Not too long after that cheerful encounter with the Greenie, I see him and Chuck sneaking around back behind the Homestead and know that they are up to no good. I watch as Chuck taps on the glass of the window and chuckle to myself. He's playing that stupid prank on someone again. I wonder who this poor soul is. I hear an inaudible voice come from inside and Chuck screams at the top of his lungs, scaring the klunk out of whoever is in there. Suddenly Gally bursts through the door, bubbling over with anger. Chuck has already run off faster than I have ever seen him run, he must have known it was Gally in there. The Greenie however stands frozen in place as Gally storms up to him. He points at the Greenie and yells, br /"Come here!" Thomas looks terrified as I start to make my way towards them, to prevent anything bad from happening. br /"It wasn't me, I swear!" Thomas immediately says /"Wasn't you? Then how do you know there was something you didn't do?" Gally says as he draws closer to Thomas. "Im not a dong, Greenie. I saw Chucks fat face in the window. But you better decide right quick who you want as your friends and enemies, hear me? One more trick like that - I don't care if its your sissy idea or not - there'll be blood spilled. You got that Greenie?"br /"Back off Gally." I tell him. "He didn't know what Chuck was doing."br /"I saw him in the Changing. I don't know who he is but Im gonna figure it out." Gally /"That's nice. Now leave the poor guy alone."br /Without another word Gally turns and leaves. As soon as he does Chuck reappears again right behind /"Thanks a lot, embuddy/em." Thomas says to /"Sorry - if I'd known it was Gally I never would've have done it, I swear."br /"Chuck, I swear, if you ever pull a stunt like that again..." I trail off due to lack of threat, "Uugghh. You aren't helping our new Greenie out at all, and god knows he needs as much help as he can get. Now get this shank to bed try not to make anyone else mad while doing so." I say before walking off to the tree and going to bed./p 


	21. Make-Up

I wake up to the sound of someone snoring quietly below me. When I look down I see Minho sitting at the base of the tree asleep. I have to clamp my hand over my mouth to keep myself from giggling and waking him up. As silently as I can, I climb down out of the tree. He doesn't wake up until I plop myself down next to him and rest my head on his shoulder. He starts shifting around and for a moment I think that he is moving away from me, but then he drapes his arm around my shoulders. I think about him snoring and start giggling.  
"What is it?" He asks  
"You snore. Did you know that?" I tell him, still laughing.  
He rolls his eyes. "Is that how you knew I was here?"  
"Yeah. Why are you sleeping out here anyway?"  
"Why are you?"  
"I figured that since I come out here all the time anyway, why not try to sleep out here? Now why are you sleeping under my tree?"  
" _Your_ tree?"  
"Yes. It's _my_ tree. Why are you sleeping under it?"  
"When you sleep with the rest of us I can hear you get up when you have a dream and then I can follow you. If you're already out here I wouldn't have a way of knowing if you had another dream."  
"It's not like you've been showing up lately anyway." He doesn't respond and I look up at him. "You promised me. You told me that anytime I want or need you, you will be there. Well I have needed you, Minho. I've wanted you around to talk to so bad, and you haven't been there. Why haven't you been there?"  
"World In Catastrophe. Killzone Experiment Department." He says quietly.  
"What?"  
"That's what WICKED stands for. A couple weeks ago you were sitting in this tree, trying to figure out what it stands for."  
"How do you know that?"  
"How do I know what WICKED stands for or how do I know that you were trying to figure it out?"  
"Both."  
"There are signs up everywhere in the maze that say that. I never really understood them until I heard you talking about WICKED standing for something. When I thought about it I realized that it spells out WICKED, so I just sorta assumed. And I have been here. Every time you come here, I come here. I just haven't been showing myself or talking lately."  
"Why? Why show up just to listen?"  
"I still wanted to be there for you, but I thought you might still be mad at me and not want me around."  
"Mad? Minho, I was never mad at you. I was frustrated and confused and I needed you and you weren't there."  
"Look. I know I can be a little..." He trails off, looking for the right word.  
"Hotheaded?"  
He chuckles. "Yeah. Hotheaded. And I am sorry about that. I shouldn't have gotten mad at you for just speaking your mind."  
"It's okay." I pause and snuggle closer to him, wrapping my arms around his waist. "I'm just glad you're here now."  
He strokes my arm, comfortingly. "Do you want to talk about your dreams now?" He asks. "I heard you talk about one of them. Something about being immune, having a brother, and WICKED."  
"Yeah." I say and then proceed to tell him everything in that dream and the one after it. When I am done he doesn't say anything and I start laughing again.  
"What's so funny?" He asks.  
"They tried to name me Mary!" I say and he chuckles a little bit too.  
"Yeah. Mary is definitely not the name for you."  
"I don't mind the name Ester though. I wonder why I refused it."  
"I don't know, but I like the name Echo. It suits you."  
I look up at him and smile. He smiles back at me and my heart flutters a little. "I've missed you." I say, my voice barely a whisper.  
"I've missed you too." He says.  
"You know, the dream that I had about them naming me? It didn't confuse me or frustrate me or scare me like the others did. There was no reason for me to come out here."  
"Then why did you?"  
"Because I wanted to talk to you."  
"About what?"  
"Anything. I didn't really care what we talked about, I just like to hear your voice."  
"I like to hear yours too. Speaking of which, that was a cool song you sang last night."  
"Yeah. I was just trying to show the Greenie that the Glade isn't too bad a place.  
"Speaking of the Greenie... You two seem close."  
"He just got here."  
"And? I saw you watching him dance. And you nearly beat up Gally for him."  
"First of all, I was looking for you when I saw him dancing. It's not my fault that he's the only Glader who can actually dance so I wanted to watch him. Plus he _did_ do something stupid. He pissed off Gally. Me almost beating the klunk out of Gally had nothing to with the fact that it was the Greenie he was mad at. I would have done that for anyone too, because I hate Gally. He's a murder."  
"A murder? What are you talking about?"  
Klunk... I shouldn't have said that... "Nothing. It's not important right now."  
"No really. What are you talking about? Gally may be mean but he would never kill anyone. None of us would."  
"Are you sure about that?" I ask him. He doesn't respond. "Anyway. You were talking about the song I sang." I say, changing the subject. Lucky for me he goes along with it and doesn't dig any deeper into what I had said.  
"Yeah. It was a good song. All the songs you sing are good. I like that game that we played, where you had to sing songs."  
I laugh. "Oh god. That was so long ago."  
"That was right before we stopped talking."  
I sigh and look down. "Yeah. Right before you left me all alone."  
"You haven't been alone. You've been with Newt." He says with the slightest hint of anger in his voice.  
"Being with him isn't the same as being with you. Not even close. With him I feel happy and thankful to have someone, but I don't feel nearly as comfortable as I do with you. With you I feel free to be myself. I feel comfortable and happy and safe and I never want you to leave."  
He puts his hand on my chin and lifts my head up to look at him. "I'm not going anywhere." He says and leans in. Just before our lips can touch I see the sun coming up out of the corner of my eye and pause.  
"Minho. The sun's coming up." I say. "Doesn't that mean that you should be about ready to go into the Maze?"  
"I have some time." He says.  
"Unfortunately, you don't." I stand up and hold my hand out to help him up. Once he is standing I push him in the direction of the Homestead. "Go on." I say. "I'm gonna hang out here for a little while longer."  
He nods and says, "See you tonight." Before running off. I sink down to the ground and sit there leaned up against the tree waiting for Newt to come and get me.


	22. Two Days In A Row

p style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px; line-height: 24.48px;"Newt never came to get me. He was busy showing the Greenie around, so once I realized that I had already missed breakfast I got up and walked out of the Deadheads on my own. By the time I get to the Garden Zart starts to scorn me for not eating and being late, but I just tune him out. It may sound pretty rude, but I still cant listen to his voice. I can look at him, but I cant listen. About halfway through Zart's little talk with me something cut through my efforts to tune everything out. It was the Greenie alarm. Zart and I pause and look at each other. I start running towards the box and dont stop until I am standing next to Newt and Alby. br /"What's going on?" I ask Newt. "The Box just came up yesterday. It's not due for another week."br /"Well I dont bloody know, but its here!" As soon as the words leave his mouth a resounding boom shudders across the Glade and in the back of my mind I wonder if Minho heard it from the Maze. Alby and Newt pull the doors open and Newt leans in to get a look, but comes right back up as soon as he does. With a bewildered look on his face he stares at the /"Holy..." He mutters. br /"No way." Alby mutters after getting a good look as /Everyone starts yelling at once. Shouting out random questions. I dont bother. Its not gonna help anyone. br /"Hold on!" Alby yells and everyone shuts up. "Just hold on!"br /"Well, what's wrong?" Someone in the back /"Two Newbies in two days. Now this again." Alby says in a soft voice before turning to Thomas. "What's going on here, Greenie?"br /"How am I supposed to know?" Thomas asks, looking confused. br /"What about you Echo? What's going on?"br /"What are you talking about Alby?"br /He turns to me with an almost grim look on his face. "Go take a look."br /"Why?"br /"You'll see." Newt mutters sounding /I hop down into the Box and look down at the figure below. I see a skinny body with extremely pale skin and long black hair. It's a girl. I realize with shock. Not just any girl, the one from my dreams. Panic starts to rise up in my throat. If she is here then it cant be very long before the rest of my dreams start to come true. I hear someone say something from up above and then Alby's voice breaks through my haze. br /"Tell 'em what's down there Echo."br /"It's... It's a girl" I say shakily, still terrified of what her arrival means. A chorus of muffled voices starts up above me and Newt silences them. br /"That's not bloody half of it. I think she's dead."br /"She's not dead." I say with maybe a bit too much /"How do you know?" Alby asks /I bend down and check her pulse. "Her heart is still beating and I could see her chest rising and falling." I lie, not wanting him to know about the dreams. He buys it and tells some of the boys to get some ivy vine ropes and lower them into the box. Newt hops into the Box with me and together we hoist her up and out. The second we step out of the Box we are surrounded by a horde of /"Greenie, get over here." Newt says. br /"It's not his fault Newt. He's got nothing to do this this." I try to tell /"Shut up Echo." Alby tells /Thomas walks over and Alby immediately asks him,br /"You know this girl, shank?"br /"emKnow/em her? Of course I dont know her. I dont know anyone. Except for you guys." br /"That's not..." Alby starts, but sighs. "I meant does she look emfamiliar/em at all? Any kind of feeling you've seen her before?"br /"No. Nothing. br /"You're sure?"br /"Yes. Why?"br /"Shuck it. Cant be a coincidence. Two days, two Greenies, one alive and one dead."br /"I told you. She isnt dead. Just in coma or something." I remind /"Since when are you a med-jack?" Alby asks me /"I'm not one." I say /"Then stop acting like one." He says. br /"I swear she doesnt look familiar at all." Thomas says again, but this time there is the slightest hint of doubt in his voice. br /"Are you-" Newt starts, but gets cut off by the girl waking up. She sucks in a gulp of air and blinks, looking around the crowd, scaring Alby half to death and making Newt gasp and jump away. My heart skips a beat and I start breathing rapidly, Thomas on the other hand seems to be completely unaffected. br /"Everything is going to change." She says in an empty voice before her eyes roll back into her head and she passes out again. As she hits the ground her right fist raises into the air and stays there. I turn to /"I told you. She's alive." Then I pry a piece of paper from her hand and read aloud what is written on it. /p  
div style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px; line-height: 24.48px; text-align: center;"br /strongShe's the last /Ever./strong/div  
div style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px; line-height: 24.48px;"br /Everyone falls silent and stares at the girl. After a few moment of stunned silence Alby finally gets his wits together enough to yell for the Med-jacks. They came running and Jeff asks,br /"So what do we do with her."br /"How should I know?" Alby asks." You two shanks are the Med-jacks - figure it out." br /Clint leans down to check her heart beat and shouts start up /"Who said Clint had first shot at her?" Someone /"I'm next!" Yelled another. br /Alby gets a look on his face. "If anybody touches this girl, you're gonna spend the night sleeping with the Grievers in the Maze. Banished, no questions. Aint nobody better touch her! Nobody!" He yells and I thank him with my eyes before turning to Clint and /"That goes for you two as well. If you have to do something that requires touching her, I do it." They dont question me and nod before turning to /"She seems fine. Breathing okay, normal heartbeat. Tough it's a bit slow. Your guess is as good as mine, but I'd say she's in a coma. Jeff, let's take her to the Homestead."br /"I got it." I tell them as I pick her up. br /"Guess we'll have to see what she does. We can feed her soupy stuff if she doesnt wake up soon." Jeff says. br /"Just watch her closely. Must be something special about her or they wouldnt have sent her here." Newt tells usbr /"Put her next to Ben's room." Alby tells us. "and keep a watch on her day and night. Nothing better happen with me knowing about it. I dont care if she talks in her sleep or takes a klunk - you come tell me."br /"Yeah." Jeff mutters before we walk off. /div 


	23. Her Name

I spend all day with her. I dont leave her side once. Clint and Jeff on the other hand are in and out of the room, constantly asking if anything has changed and the answer is always no. Finally towards the end of the day Minho walks in. I smile at him drowsily and yawn. He chuckles a little bit and sits down next to me.  
"There's a girl." I say plainly.  
"I can see that."  
"You should have seen everyone when she came up. They were mesmerized by her looks. The Greenie seemed totally captivated by her."  
"You jealous?"  
"Not yet."  
There is a bit of an awkward silence before he breaks it.  
"Ben attacked the Greenie."  
"I heard bits and pieces of the story from Clint and Jeff. What exactly happened?"  
"Ben went crazy and attacked the Greenie. Going on and on about how he was the real bad guy or something. Finally Alby showed up and-"  
"Shot him in the head with his bow." I cut him off and finish for him sadly. I hang my head and start crying softly. Minho's arm comes around me and he pulls me to him.  
"You saw this in a dream didnt you?"  
"Yes. I did. I should have seen it coming. I should have done something."  
"There was nothing you could have done. Ben went crazy. He wasnt gonna last anyway."  
"I know, but-" I pause and look up at the girl sitting in front of me. "It's her you know. She triggered it. I knew the second I saw her. We had two Greenies after that dream that I had with all the death. Two Greenies to prepare for what happened. Well, two Greenies have come up. And the death has already begun, starting with Ben."  
Minho is silent for a while. "You should get some sleep. I'll get one of the Med-jacks in here to watch her for the night."  
"No. I'm gonna sleep in here until she wakes up. It's not right to leave her all alone."  
"Alright. Then I will stay with you."  
"Thank you." I say as I snuggle closer to him and close my eyes.  
"Any time." He says casually as I drift off into a dream.

 _"How can you do this? Look around you. Look at all of this pain you're causing! It's your fault! You can stop this!" I yell at the girl who came up in the Box. We are alone in a room that looks similar to the one that I was in when I said goodbye to all of my friends. She sighs and shakes her head.  
"You don't understand. I cant stop this. Not now. We are so close. We just have to finish these trials and maybe the next ones. It shouldn't take much longer."  
"That's what you always say."  
"You have to believe me. This is all necessary. WICKED is good. You have to be believe that."  
"Well I don't. Why cant you understand that we dont have to do this. We could leave. You, me, Thomas, Minho, whoever else. We could pull them out and be gone before anyone ever knew."  
"They are better off in there."  
"How can you say that?"  
"You haven't seen it, the real world. The world outside of WICKED. It's so much worse than you could possibly imagine. That's why we are doing this. To save them."  
"Get out."  
"What?"  
"I want to talk to my brother. Get out."  
"But Thomas is busy-"  
"I dont care. He's my brother and I am going to see him before I leave."  
She gets a strange look on her perfect face. "He wont agree with you. He's not gonna leave with you either." She whispers, almost as if she doesnt want me to hear.  
"Don't tell me what he will and will not do. He's my brother. Not yours."  
She nods and walks towards the door. Before she walks out she turns around and looks at me sadly as I glare angrily at her. "Goodbye Echo. Goodluck."  
"Goodbye Teresa." I say. As soon as the door closes behind her the tears start falling._

"What?" I hear Minho's voice ask, waking me up.  
"What?" I ask back, not sure why he is talking to me and still confused by the dream.  
"You said 'Teresa'."  
"I did?"  
"Yes."  
"Oh..." I glance nervously at the girl, Teresa, and then at the ground.  
"That's her name isnt it?"  
"I think so."  
"You had another dream?"  
"Yeah."  
"Wanna talk about it."  
"I'm not sure..."  
"Alright." Minho says, sounding uncomfortable. "Well, if you want to, just tell me. I'll listen."  
"I need Thomas." I say without really meaning to.  
"What?" He asked, sounding surprised and a little hurt.  
"Thomas... I ummm... I need to talk to him. As soon as I can. What time is it?" I ask, kinda embarrassed by what I said.  
"It's the time you usually wake up from a dream, so we have a minute or two before everyone else wakes up. Why?"  
"I need to talk to Thomas." I repeat and start to stand up before remember Teresa. I turn back to Minho who looks confused and a little upset. "Can you watch her while I'm gone?"  
"Not for long, I've got to get out into the Maze soon, but for now yeah."  
"Thank you so much." I say before walking back over to him. Without really thinking about it I kiss his cheek before walking away again. "I will explain tonight. I promise." I tell him before walking out of the room blushing furiously.


	24. A Dead Griever

I run down to the kitchen and see that Frypan is the only one there. I talk to him for a bit until I see some of the Runners start coming in, including Minho. He walks up to me as he grabs some food.  
"Hey. I told Jeff and Clint that you had something to do so they will watch after the girl until you are done talking to the Greenie." He tells me.  
"Okay. Thanks Minho."  
"No problem." He says before shoving some food in his mouth and running off. A few minutes later Newt and Thomas walk in and I walk up to them.  
"Hey Newt. Who's got him today?" I ask  
"Zart."  
"Oh, well then I can take him from here. Walk him through some stuff before he actually has to deal with the Keeper." I tell Newt who looks at me skeptically.  
"Alright. But keep an eye on him. We dont need him running off on us."  
"Dont worry Newt. I'll watch him like a hawk." I reassure him. He nods and walks off. I grab some food for Thomas and drag him to the Deadheads with me.  
"Where are we going?" He asks.  
"I just need to talk to you in private. Dont worry." I tell him before stopping and handing him his food. Then I turn and look at him. I can't tell if we look alike or not since I dont really know what I look like, but now that I think about it, he does look like an older version of that little boy in my dream.  
"Why are you staring at me like that?" He asks.  
"Oh... Sorry." I say.  
"So, what did you want to talk to me about?"  
"Umm..." I hesitate. Now that I am face to face with him I realize that it may not be the best idea to tell him. "I... Umm... Forgot. Yeah. Sorry. I am totally drawing a blank. I dont remember what I wanted to tell you. Oh well. Maybe I will remember it late. Let's get to the Gardens. Zart is probably expecting you to be there soon." I say as I start walking away, he follows behind me.  
"I thought you worked in the Gardens."  
"I do."  
"But you just said he was only expecting me. Do you have the day off or something?"  
"Well, I am taking care of the girl since no guys can touch her, so for now I don't have to work. Or at least, thats what I am assuming."  
"Alright. So what can you tell me about the Runners? Newt wouldnt tell me much."  
"He never says much about the Maze or the Runners."  
"Well what do you know about them?"  
"I dont know much about them as a whole besides the fact that they have to be fast and smart. They are the best of the best."  
"Are you friends with any of them?"  
"Yeah."  
"Which one?"  
"His name is Minho."  
"What is he like?"  
"He's closed off and usually pretty grumpy, but laughs every now and then. He's caring and sweet and will do anything to help out a friend. He's also hot headed and can hold a grudge like nobodies business."  
"Who does he hold a grudge against?"  
"Everyone. myself included."  
"What did you do to make him hold a grudge against you?"  
"I threatened to break his neck before they could even get me out of the box."  
"And you guys are friends now?"  
"Yeah."  
"Hmm."  
Now we are at the Homestead. "Alright. I gotta go. The Garden is in the North East corner. Its not hard to find." I tell Thomas before stepping into the Homestead and going up the stairs to the room that Teresa is in.

I sit there for a few hours, bored out of my mind and left to my own thoughts. After a while I get Jeff to watch her while I go down to the kitchen to eat. I grab some food and sit down next to Newt.  
"Hey Newt. How are ya?" I ask him. When he turns to look at me I realize that he looks awful. His eyes are bloodshot and he has been chewing his nails nervously. "Wow.. What's wrong with you?"  
"Yeah, what is wrong with you? No offense, but you look like klunk." Chuck says from the table next to us that he is sitting at with Thomas.  
"Every loving thing in the universe. The girl from the Box. Keeps groaning and saying all kinds of weird stuff, but wont wake up. Med-jacks're doing their best to feed her, but she's eating less each time. I'm telling you, somethings very bad about that whole bloody thing." Newt tells us, butI know that that's not what's bothering him, cuz she was doing that yesterday and he didn't seem to be nearly as concerned about it then. "Shuck it. But that's not what really has me buggin."  
"Then what does?" Chuck asks him.  
"Alby and Minho." Newt says. "They should have come back hours ago."  
"What are you talking about? Minho never comes back until the last second and Alby should be here. If he's not then where is he?" I ask.  
"Did Minho not tell you?" Newt asks me, sounding shocked.  
"Tell me what?"  
"Oh. He found a dead Griever yesterday when he was in the Maze." Newt tells me. I am so stunned that I dont say anything in reply. "He and Alby went to go check it out this morning and they havent come back."

A few more hours pass by with me watching Teresa and thinking about Minho and Alby. Why didn't he tell me? What else happened that I dont know about? Where are they? When are they gonna come back? Are they gonna make it back? I cringe at that last thought. Of course they are going to make it back... Right? Once dinner rolls around I grab a couple of the hot rolls that Frypan made and head outside to watch the doors. Newt runs around for Door to Door, with panic written all over his face. Instead of running from door to door like he is, I just sit in front of the one that Minho always uses to leave and enter the Glade. I sit there and study the little section of the Maze, but there isnt much to study. Huge, awe inspiring walls covered in ivy that goes on for a while. I dont know how long I sit there, but eventually Newt, Thomas, and Chuck show up. I shut them up. Their worry will not help me at all. The loud boom that signals the closing of the Doors echos across the Glade and I jump up., looking anxiously into the Maze. They have to make it, they have to make it, they have to make it! They can't not make it! The doors start moving and panic rises in my chest and I cant breath. Then I see them. They stumble around the left corner, Minho dragging Alby behind him. Relief soars through me when I see that Minho is okay, but then drops a bit when I realize that Alby might be dead, and then it drops back down even further when I remember the Doors. They wont make it.  
"They got him!" Minho yells to me and then panic starts to rise again. We cant loose both of them. The Glade would fall apart.  
"Run!" I yell at him as Thomas yells for Newt. Thomas says something else as well, but suddenly all that I can see is Minho. He's all that I can focus on. Alby slips out of Minho's grasp and falls while Minho frantically grabs at him again, trying to continue pulling him towards the Door. I want to yell to Minho to just leave him, but I know that that is a selfish thought and that Minho would never agree to it. The Doors keep closing and Minho keeps moving towards us, but they are too far away. Minho stumbles and falls and I feel like the breath has been knocked out of me. Someone yells something behind me. I see a movement at my side and my head snaps in that direction. It's Thomas. He's running into the Maze.  
"Thomas no!" I yell even though it's already too late. I get one last look at Minho before the Doors slam shut.


	25. Gone

p style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px; line-height: 24.48px;"I sit there in agonizing silence as I stare at the Maze walls. Something is going on behind me, but I dont pay any attention to it. I am empty. There is nothing left in me. I feel dead. I might as well be dead. I collapse onto the ground and people swarm over me. I shove them away, insisting that I am /"Are you sure?" Newt asks me. br /"Yes. I'm fine. Just get me my guitar." I tell him. At first he is hesitant about it, but eventually he does go and get me my guitar. I strum chords randomly and stare at the Maze walls. People are still hovering around me, I can sense them staring at me, but I dont care. br /br /A few hours later, it's really late and some people try to convince me to get some sleep. I am listening to their conversations, but none of the words are processing in my head. All of my senses have been dulled to the point where I feel no emotion and show no reaction to anything. Behind me, Newts voice manages to cut through the numbness that protects me. br /"They're not coming back." Is all that he says, but as soon as he says it, something inside of me breaks. Just like that the numbness is gone, replaced by an overwhelming wave of emotion. Sadness crashes through me in an immense tidal wave and I don't know what to do with all of it. I need to cry but I cant. I need to scream, but I can. I need to do something, but I am frozen in place. Without realizing it I start playing a song on the guitar that has been sitting in my hands for hours, not doing much. Once I realize what song it is, I start to sing. /p  
p style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px; line-height: 24.48px; text-align: center;""I'm an angel with a shotgun,br /Fighting 'till the war's won,br /I don't care if heaven wont take me /I'll throw away my faith, babe, just to keep you /Don't you know you're everything I have?br /And I wanna live, not just survive tonight."/p  
p style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px; line-height: 24.48px;"By the time I am done with the song a crowd of Gladers is surrounding me. I still havent cried or screamed or anything that I had originally planned on taking care or my emotions, but once the song is over, I feel a lot better. It's like they used to say, I poured my heart and soul into the music. Then a loud boom echos across the Glade and I refuse to look into the Maze. I refuse myself to hope that they made it out. I stare at the ground and feel like crying all over again, but my body still wont let me. The entire Glade sits in a few agonizing minutes of silence after the Doors have opened all the way. I still havent looked up from the ground. Finally I see a movement. I look over to see Newt limping /"What happened?" He asks. "How in the bloody-"br /"We'll tell you later. We have to save Alby." Thomas voice says, cutting him up. My head snaps up at the sound of his voice and I immediately find Minho walking along with him. Happiness fills my body as he and Thomas move forwards and I once again find myself frozen in place. He looks at me as Newt and Thomas say something to each other and then Minho grabs Thomas's arm and drags him towards the Glade. br /"We need sleep. And bandages. Now." He says forcefully as he continues towards me. When he steps into the Glade he let's go of Thomas and I can move again. I scramble to get up and run to Minho as fast as I can. I crash into him and nearly knock him over in the process, but I don't care. I hug him as tightly as I can and begin to cry. He strokes my hair and holds me /"It's okay. Everything is okay." He repeats over and over /"I thought I had lost you!" I sob into him. "I thought you were gone!"br /"I'm here. I'm okay."br /I pull away from him enough to see his face and for some reason my mind drifts off the the first dream that I had that was a memory. I think back to that kiss we shared before he went into the Maze and suddenly I crave for that feeling again. Without thinking twice about it I press my lips to his. He kisses back immediately, but the kiss is short lived as he pulls away, breathing /"As much as I love the fact that you finally kissed me, and believe me, I do, I'm breathless enough as it is." He tells me and I nod, holding in a giggle as a feeling of giddiness flows through me. I help him and Thomas get back to the Homestead and get them into their rooms. I get some water, food and bandages for Minho, but by the time I get back to his room to give it to him he is sound asleep. I smile and walk over to him. Placing the food, water and bandages next to the bed, I begin to look at him. As I notice the cuts and scrapes and things I put small bandages on them, the Med-jacks can look at the injuries more later. br /br /A few hours later they got Alby down from the vines and gave him the serum. I have been rotating between Minho's and Teresa's rooms all day. Nothing has changed with either of them. Both still sound asleep. I walk into Minho's room to let him know that Alby is okay, but right as I am about to wake him up a horrid scream erupts from Alby's room. Minho sits up gasping and looks at me. His eyes brighten slightly and then /"Who was that?" He /"Alby. He's going through the Changing."br /He lets out a sigh of relief. "Good."br /"How are you feeling?" I ask /"I've been better."br /"I can imagine. What exactly happened in there?"br /"A lot. I'll explain it later."br /"Alright. I have some food for you if you want it."br /"I would love it." He says, reaching for the food. I give him the water as well and he chugs all of it down in one /"I'll go get you some more water." I tell him before walking away. I check on Teresa on my way there. Nothing new. When I get back all the food is gone and Minho is still sitting on his bed. I sit on the edge of it and hand him the water, feeling like a mother nursing her sick child back to health. br /"Thanks." He says,br /"No problem. I'm going to assume that you want some more sleep?"br /"That would be great, even if it were just for a few more minutes." br /"I'll leave you to that then." I say as I start to walk away. Before I can get very far his hand wraps around me wrist and pulls me to him. He kisses me for what feels like only a few precious seconds, but for all I know it could have been a couple minutes. When he pulls away he looks at me with something in his eyes that I haven't seen before. br /"I love you Echo." He says quietly and I think back to the dream where he said that we would fall in love all over again. br /"I love you too Minho." I say, deciding not tell him about that part of the dream yet. "But for now you don't need love. You need sleep, so get some while you can."br /He smiles at me and lays down. "Yes ma'am." He says and I roll my eyes at him as I walk out of the room. /p 


	26. Alby Wakes

The next a Gathering is called so Minho is gone before I get to talk to him. About halfway through the Gathering Alby starts acting weird, causing the Med-jacks to get all bent out of shape. I walk into the room to see whats going on and find a nightmare. Not a literal one, one of the ones that I have been having, but the Alby looks awful. Sweat is pouring off of him and he is thrashing about, almost as if he were trying to fight off some invisible fiend. The Med-jacks are glancing nervously at each other, unsure of what to do. There are ropes tied around Alby's wrists and ankles so that he can't thrash out at anyone. After a few minutes of staring at him he starts to mumble words. Jeff and Clint move forward and lean in close to hear what he is saying. They give each other confused looks and then turn to me.  
"He wants to talk to the Greenie." Jeff says.  
"The girl or Thomas?" I ask.  
"Thomas." Clint tells me.  
I take one last glance at Alby before nodding and walking out. As I do, I run into Chuck.  
"Oh.. Sorry Echo." He says with a sad look on his face.  
"It's fine kid. Can you go get Thomas for me."  
"But Thomas is at the Gathering. I'm not allowed in there during a Gathering."  
"Well you can tell them that the Med-jacks sent for him. Alby wants to talk to him."  
"Alby's awake!?"  
"He's been talking about wanting to talk to Thomas. Now go get him."  
"Okay." Chuck says before running off.  
I duck back into the room and tell the Med-jacks that Chuck is going to get him. Then I go back to Teresa's room and to watch her while Alby talks to Thomas. A few minutes later I hear shouting coming from Alby's room and I run out into the hall to see Newt slamming the door shut.  
"What happened?" I ask him  
"Alby shucking kicked me out. He only wanted to talk to Thomas."  
"He kicked you out?"  
"Yeah."  
"No way. He trusts you with everything."  
"Well apparently not this."  
"Wow. Sorry Newt."  
"Yeah." He says. We stand there in silence for a minute or two and them we here Thomas screaming inside the room.  
"Alby!" Thomas yells Newt and I both turn towards the room. I reach for the door but Newt stops me.  
"Hold on." He says.  
"Newt!" Thomas screams. "Newt get in here!" Newt flings the door open and rushes in with me on his heals. Alby is inside with his hands wrapped around his throat. Newt grabs Alby's flashing body by the shoulders and yells for Thomas to grab the legs, but Thomas hesitates. I shove Thomas out of the way and put all my weight on his legs in order to avoid getting kicked in the face, or worse, the boobs.  
"Let go!" Newt yells, telling me that he is trying to pry Alby's hands off of his throat. "You're bloody killing yourself!"  
After a moment or two of Alby thrashing around he finally goes still and is breathing normally. Cautiously, I let go of his legs and look at Thomas.  
"Watch him." I tell Thomas as I leave the room. I walk back to Teresa's room, exhausted. When I get to her bedside I collapse into the chair and lean back in it. Before I know it, I'm asleep.

I don't know how long I am asleep, but I wake up when Clint comes in with Newt and Thomas. They start talking, but I don't add much to the conversation.  
"Hey, Clint." Newt says. "She surviving?"  
"Yeah. She's doing fine, though she talks in her sleep all the time." Clint tells them. "We think that she'll come out of is soon."  
"Have you been writing down every word she says?" Newt asks.  
Clint looks at me and I nod to tell him that I have. "Most of it is impossible to understand. But yeah, when we can." Clint says.  
"Give me an example." Newt says. Now I add my input since I have spent the most time with her.  
"Same thing she said when we pulled her out of the box, about stuff changing. Some stuff about the creators and how 'it all has to end'. And umm..." I pause and look at Thomas, unsure if I should say it in front of him.  
"It's okay." Newt tells me. "He can hear whatever I hear."  
"Okay. Well... I can't make out every word she says, but... She keeps saying his name over and over." I say pointing at Thomas. Thomas's face pales and I feel bad for saying that in front of him.  
"Thanks." Newt says. "Get us a report of all that, okay?"  
"Will do." Clint says and leaves the room. Newt moves to take a seat and I get up, knowing that Thomas will also want to sit down.  
"Pull up a chair." Newt says to Thomas. I take a seat on the bed next to Teresa.  
"Anything ring a bell? Anything at all?" Newt asks Thomas. I suddenly have the urge to tell them what her name is and what I have seen in my dreams about her, but I decide that now is not the time. Thomas is quiet for a long time before finally whispering,  
"I do know her." This gets Newt's attention.  
"What? Who is she?" Newt asks.  
"No idea. But something clicked-I know her from somewhere." Thomas says as he rubs his eyes.  
"Well, keep bloody thinking-don't lose it. Concentrate." Newt says eagerly. I am just about to tell him to shut up when Thomas beats me to it.  
"I'm trying, so shut up." Thomas closes his eyes and gets a strained look on his face. He leans forward in his chair and breaths in deeply. Newt shakes his head and Thomas looks very frustrated. "I just don't-" He pauses and jumps up out of the chair, knocking it over and then spinning around, looking for something.  
"What's wrong?" I ask right as Newt asks,  
"Did you remember something?"  
Thomas looks at the girl. "I..." He pauses and sits back down. "Did one of you two say something before I stood up?"  
"No." Newt and I say at he same time.  
"Oh. I just thought i heard something... I don't know. Maybe it was in my head. Did... _she_ say anything?"  
"Her?" Newt asks. "No. Why? What did you hear?"  
Thomas looked afraid "I... I swear I heard a name. Teresa."  
My breath gets caught in my throat. "Teresa?" Newt asks. "No, I didn't hear that. Must've sprung loose from your bloody memory blocks! That's her name, Tommy. Teresa. Has to be."  
"Newt." I say.  
"What?" He asks.  
"Her name is Teresa."  
"I know. We just figured that out."  
"No, I mean, I've known that that is her name for a few days now."  
"What? How?"  
"I had a dream."  
"Another one?"  
"Yes."  
"What do you mean a dream?" Thomas asks right before he jumps again and looks freaked out.  
"What's bloody wrong with you?" Newt asks him.  
"She's... She's freaking _talking_ to me. In my head. She just said my name!"  
"What?" Newt and I both ask at the same time."  
"I swear! I'm... hearing her voice in my head-or something... it's not really a voice..."  
"Tommy, sit your butt down. What are you bloody talking about?" Newt asks.  
"Newt, I'm serious. It's... Not really a voice... but it is."  
He falls silent again. After a few moments of silence he suddenly stands up and runs off. Newt tries to follow, but he's not quick enough. Thomas is long gone before Newt gets out of his chair. I jump up and look out the window to see Thomas run out into the Maze.  
"Shit..." I mumble.  
"What is it?" Newt asks.  
"He's gone."  
"What do you mean 'gone'?"  
"He ran into the Maze."  
"Shit."  
"He'll be fine."  
"How do you know."  
"If he can make it in the Maze over night, the day will be a breeze for that kid. We'll ask him questions when he gets back."  
"Right... Good that."


	27. Defining Things

A few minutes before the Doors close Thomas comes back and not long after that, I see Minho. I am tempted to go talk to Minho, but I also don't want to leave Teresa's side, so I stay put. Not too long after that Minho walks in with food for both of us. I take it gratefully.  
"How's the girl?" He asks.  
"Teresa." I remind him.  
"Oh, right. Teresa. How is she?"  
"Nothing has changed so far."  
"Do you think she will wake up?"  
"I know she will."  
"How?"  
"I've had dreams about her. She was in the Slammer in one of them. In the others she is with us during one of the deaths."  
"Oh." He says and we fall into silence as we finish eating. Once all his food is gone he starts talking again. "How are you doing?"  
"Fine." I tell him, which is a half lie.  
"No really. How are you?" He says, seeing right through me, as usual. I turn to look at him.  
"I'm scared." I say in a small voice.  
He scoots closer to me and puts his arm around me protectively. "I wont let anything happen to you. I promise."  
"That's not what I'm worried about. I dont care about myself. I'm scared of losing everyone. I-i'm scared of losing..." I hesitate as he looks at me expectantly. "you." I finally whisper.  
He pulls me closer to him and kisses the top of my head. "You wont lose me. I promise."  
"You can't know that."  
"Well you haven't dreamed about it have you?"  
"No..."  
"Then don't worry. I'll be fine." He promises me. I look up at him, unconvinced, but nod anyway. "Speaking of dreams," He continues. "What was with the one you had the other night? Why did you flip out and run to Thomas afterwards?"  
"I found out the name of the girl."  
"Yeah, but why was it necessary for you to talk to him about it." They way Minho says "him", with a hint of jealousy in his voice, makes me cringe.  
"I uhh... found out who my brother is."  
"Really?"  
"Yeah. In the dream I was talking to the girl, Teresa. I was telling her that what she was doing was wrong and I tried to convince her to pull you out of the Maze so that you, her, Thomas, and I could run off together. When she refused I got upset and told her to leave, that I wanted to talk to my brother. She said that he wouldnt listen, that he would side with her, but I wouldn't hear it. I wanted to talk to him. She said Thomas was busy and told her I didn't care, he was my brother and I was going to talk to him."  
"Thomas? That dumb shank is your brother?"  
"He's not dumb, he saved your life."  
"I know. And I'm thankful for that, but that doesn't lessen the shock. He's your brother."  
"And he worked with Teresa. I didn't trust her Minho. I hated her, wanted her dead, and he sided with her."  
"You don't know that."  
"Yes I do."  
"No you don't. For all you know you guys just couldn't get me out and you refused to leave without me, or maybe Teresa stopped him or something. There were a million things that could have gone wrong." Once again, I think back to the dream where Minho was leaving and I said goodbye. I get the urge to tell him, but now isnt the right time.  
"I can feel it Minho. He didn't side with me. He sent me here, or let them send me here. He is on Teresa's side and she was on the Creators."  
"Okay. So what if he did? What are you going to do about it? Hate him? Kill him? He doesn't remember anything, just like the rest of us. He's as innocent as anyone." Minho says and I laugh a little. "What?"  
"You're starting to sound like Newt." I tell him.  
"Klunk. I really have been spending too much time with him."  
"There's nothing wrong with that. You two just have a nice bromance going on."  
He gags exaggeratedly. "Is that what its called?"  
"Yeah. Because you are brothers in heart and you've got that whole brotherly romance thing going on."  
"You make it sound so awkward."  
"I know. Speaking of romance, what are we?"  
"What do you mean?"  
"Are we just friends, or boyfriends and girlfriend, or what?"  
"Well we kissed, does that not automatically mean we are dating?"  
"I don't think so."  
"Why not?"  
"Well I kissed Newt."  
"Okay, well we kissed willingly."  
"Alright. So we are dating then? You are my boyfriend?"  
"Sure."  
"Sure? That doesn't sound like the most definite answer in the world."  
"I was trying to sound casual." He says and kisses me, his lips surprisingly soft against mine. We pull away and rest my head against his chest.  
"So we are dating then."  
"Yes."  
"Good. It's about time."


	28. Teresa Wakes

The next morning I wake up and Minho is gone. He stayed with me in Teresa's room until I fell asleep. I look out the window and see that the suns already up and the Doors are open. Groggily, I go downstairs and get some food from Frypan.  
"Glad to see you're alive. I was starting to think that the new girl woke up and killed you or something." He says to me.  
"Please. Minho would have knocked her our before she got the chance."  
"Oh. You spent the night with Minho." He says, wiggling his eyebrows.  
"That's none of your business." I tell him.  
"Hey, I'm not judging. That was a pretty hot kiss you two shared when he got out of the Maze."  
"You saw that?" I say, blushing furiously.  
"Everyone saw it. You two lovebirds wouldn't know it since you haven't left the girls side and he is either with you or in the Maze, but you two are all anyone's been talking about. Well, until yesterday. Now the main topic seems to be the new Runner and Gally."  
"New Runner?" I ask, intrigued by what he said.  
"Yeah. Didn't Minho tell you? He nominated Thomas as Keeper of the Runners."  
"What?"  
"Yeah. Newt didn't listen to that crazy idea, but he did say that Thomas could be a Runner."  
"Wow. That's crazy."  
"Yeah, but it's a good idea."  
"So what were you talking about with Gally. What happened to him?"  
"He ran off into the Maze."  
"He what?"  
"Yeah. After he was kicked out of the Gathering a bunch of people claimed they saw him run off into the Maze. Some of his croonies are saying that Thomas killed him when he went out there yesterday, others are saying that his croonies hid him away somewhere in the Glade and that he didn't actually leave."  
"Wow. Since when did you become the King of Gossip Frypan? I thought that it was Winston who knew everything about everyone."  
"I've always been the King of Gossip, Winston is the prince. I'm the cook. I hear everything, so I know everything. Winston just picks up on some of it when he's giving me fresh meat."  
"Speaking of meat," Alby's deep voice says from behind me, "I'm starving. What have you got for me this morning Frypan?"  
"Alby!" Frypan and I say at the same time.  
"I'm so glad you're okay!" I tell him as Frypan get's his food.  
"Yeah. How you doing Echo? How's the girl."  
"She's fine so far. Nothing new, she just sleeps."  
"Sounds good. Keep me posted."  
"Will do." I say as Frypan gives him his food and he walks off. I turn back to Frypan.  
"I'm gonna eat this in her room. I'll see you later."  
"Bye Echo." He says as I walk back upstairs to Teresa's room.

The next couple of days go by uneventfully. Thomas starts his life as a new Runner and I stay by Teresa's bedside. Every night, Minho brings me food and joins me there. We talk and talk and talk until I fall asleep and then by the time I wake up he is already gone. This morning I woke up to find a lifeless sky above us. I ran outside to get a better look and joined a few other people who were staring at the grey sky with fear in their eyes. Everyone is talking at once and I can't make out any words. Finally I notice Thomas and Minho run off into the Maze and decide that I should probably go back to watching Teresa. I sit in the room the whole day and try not to glance nervously at the sky every five seconds. Around midday, I'm assuming now that I cant see the sun, most of the Gladers crowd around the Box and once again, chaos breaks out. The Box isn't coming up. Then a few hours later, I see Minho and Thomas come back into the Maze and go into the Map Room. I watch them come out of it as well and start talking to Newt and Alby, but then I hear a noise. A groan. I turn my attention to the girl to see her sitting up. She opens her eyes and they widen as she sees me.  
"Echo..." She says  
"What? How-" I start to say before she cuts me off.  
"Thomas." She says before bolting out of bed and running off.  
"What? Hey! Stop! Stop her!" I yell hoping someone will hear me and stop her. I see her race down the steps and follow her to find that a group of Gladers stopped her before she could leave the building. Now she is freaking out.  
"Let me out!" She yells at them. I see her start to shake and I walk over to her. She flinches when I grab her shoulders, but she also calms down slightly. "I'm sorry." She says quietly.  
"For what?" I ask her.  
"I don't know. I can't remember."

A while later I try to convince the Med-jacks to let her go, but they are a stubborn couple and refused. Not five minutes after I left the room they came running out carrying on about how she was there one second and then gone the next. I laughed at them.  
"Good. Let her go. It's not like she can run off into the Maze or anything. The Doors are closed. Just let her cool off for a while." I told them.  
"The Doors didn't close tonight!" They told me.  
"Still she's a smart girl, or seems like it. She wouldn't just run out there."  
They don't listen to me and run off to get Alby and Newt. As they search for her I go to my tree in the Deadheads and lay down on the usual branch. It feels like it's been forever since I have been here. I am about to fall asleep when I hear Minho's voice.  
"How's the view from up there?" He asks.  
"Grey." I say looking down at him to find him smiling at me. "How's yours?"  
"Beautiful." He says, making me laugh. I climb down and we sit down, leaned up against the tree trunk. Minho takes my hand in his and I rest my head on his shoulder. "Thomas and I may have found a way out today." He tells me.  
I look up at him, shocked. "Seriously?"  
"Yeah. There's a Cliff out there in the Maze and we found out that there's a certain section of it that is more of a teleportation type thing. We would throw a rock off of it and it would disappear in the middle of the air. We think it might be the Grievers home or something. Might be a way out."  
"Minho, that's amazing!"  
"It was all Thomas. I never would have noticed it. That kid is amazing."  
"Yeah. He is."  
"Are you gonna tell him?"  
"Tell him what?"  
"That he's your brother. He deserves to know as much as you do."  
"Not yet. That will just complicate things, make him question me. I will eventually, but not yet."  
"Just make sure he knows eventually."  
"I will. What are we gonna do now? With the Doors not closing?"  
"I don't know."  
"Well what's gonna happen?"  
"Some are saying that the Grievers are gonna come and get us." As soon as the words leave his mouth realization dawns on me.  
"Oh no..."  
"What?"  
"Zart." I say before running out of the Deadheads. All over the Glade different groups look like they are preparing for war. The Builders are barricading the Doors, everything was moved to the Homestead so that everyone could sleep in there tonight, and people were putting enough stuff in the Homestead to last us a while just in case. I see Thomas talking to Newt and that reminds me of Teresa. Maybe she knows something. I walk around the until I am standing outside the Slammer. When I look into it I see Teresa sitting on the old stool with her head hung low. She must hear me approach because suddenly her head snaps up and she glares at me.  
"What are you doing here?" She snaps at me.  
I take a step back and say, "I-i don't know." Then I turn to leave, thinking about that dream that I had. It seemed like forever ago. Before I can get very far I hear her voice say,  
"I'm sorry."  
I turn and walk back to her. "You said that earlier."  
"I know."  
"Why?"  
"I don't know."  
"How do you know that you are sorry, but not know what for?"  
"I'm not sure. I just know that I did something and I wanted to apologize to you, but as soon as I did the memory went away and I couldn't remember what I did. I can't remember anything now. My memories. They faded so quickly. One second they were there and the next, there was nothing." I am about to respond when Thomas shows up and looks back and forth between Teresa and I.  
"Hey Thomas. I was just leaving." I say before walking away. When I go back to the Homestead Minho sees me and runs over.  
"There you are! Why did you run off like that?"  
"Zart. He gets killed by a Griever, but it's in the Glade, not the Maze. I think that this might be when that happens. "  
"Well then I'm glad that we are getting the Glade ready."  
"Do you think that this will be enough."  
"Not nearly. It might slow them down half a second, but in the long run it wont do us any good. I just hope that it wont be too bad. I don't want to lose anyone else to Grievers." Right on cue the first moan of a Griever reaches the Glade.


	29. Grievers Attack

Minho and I run into the Homestead and it doesn't take long for everyone else to get packed in there. I end up upstairs with Newt, Alby, Minho, and Thomas. As I sit there in the silence surrounded by all the Gladers I feel a sudden surge of panic rising in my chest. I close my eyes and try to breath, but before long I feel wetness on my cheeks as I begin to cry. Minho wraps his arm around me and pulls me close to him. I calm down a little, but the panic is still there.  
"You okay?" He asks.  
"Yeah. Just scared." I whisper.  
He kisses my cheek. "You'll be fine. We all will. I promise."  
"You can't promise all of that Minho. It's out of your control."  
"Then I'll figure out a way to control it. I'll be shucked if I let anything happen to anyone here, especially you."  
I nod, but don't say anything, then the boys finish some conversation they were having earlier. I zoned out and didn't pay attention to their conversation. Instead I start to think about my dreams, which ones have and have not come true. The first dream I had was the one with Chuck. That already happened. Then I had the dream about Teresa and the one about Ben getting shot by Alby. Those also happened. After that was the really bad one where I watched Ben get shot, Zart get killed, Alby get killed, and Chuck get killed. So far only Ben has happened. All the other dreams have been memories that have slipped past the block in my mind. So all I have to do is wait for something to happen to Zart, Alby, and Chuck and try to prevent it last minute. No pressure on me at all. I was snapped out of my thoughts by Newt.  
"You can't be serious." He was saying. "You can't go out there now!"  
"I'm going, and that's that." Alby says from the doorway as he rattles some keys. "See you shucks in the morning." He says, before walking out. I blinked a couple times and try to comprehend what just happened. He left. With the Grievers out there. I think back to his death. He's surrounded by all of us. As long as a bunch of us don't get up to go with him, we should be fine. Since no one is jumping to catch up and follow him I don't worry about it and decide to try to get some sleep. I lay down on the uncomfortable floor and try to fall asleep, without much success. After a few minutes of shifting around uncomfortably, Minho moves me so my head and upper body are in his lap. I look up at him.  
"Don't worry. I gotcha." He says as my eyelids fall shut.

 _There was a woman. She was sitting in front of me talking, but not to me. She was talking to Thomas and Teresa. I was leaned against Minho in the seat behind her trying to sleep, but giving up and listening to what she has to say.  
"It started with the sun flares." She says.  
"What-" Teresa starts, but Thomas shushes her and they seem to come to some sort of a silent agreement.  
"The sun flares couldn't have been predicted." The woman continued. " Sun flares are normal, but these were unprecedented, massive, spiking higher and higher-and once they were noticed, it was only minutes before their heat slammed into Earth. First our satellites were burned out, and thousands died instantly, millions within days, countless miles became wastelands. Then came the sickness." She pauses and I have so many questions I want to ask, but something keeps me from speaking. I decide that for now, I am content with just listening. "As the ecosystem fell apart, it became impossible to control the sickness-even to keep it in South America. The jungles were gone, but the insects weren't. People call it the Flare now. It's a horrible, horrible thing. Only the richest can be treated, no one can be cured. Unless the rumors from the Andes are true. As for you, all of you-you're just a few of millions orphaned." Orphaned? I guess I've never really thought about it all too much. What happened to our parents. How we got wherever we are. But now that I hear it, it sounds awful. "They tested thousands," The woman continues, "chose you for the big one. The ultimate test. Everything you lived through was calculated and thought through. Catalysts to study your reactions, your brain waves, your thoughts. All in an attempt to find those capable of helping us find a way to beat the Flare." Another pause allowed me to think some more about this. If she is referring to the Maze like I think she is, then that means that I was right about this being an experiment. But how are they studying our brains? Why? "Most of the physical effects are caused by something else. First the delusions start, then animal instincts begin to overpower human ones. Finally it consumes them, destroys their humanity. It's all in the brain. The Flare lives in their brains. It is an awful thing. Better to die than catch it." What is she talking about? The Flare? Crazy people? What on Earth is going on? "We won't let them do this to children. We've sworn our lives to fighting WICKED. We can't lose our humanity, no matter the end result. You'll learn more in time. We live far in the north. We're separated from the Andes by thousands of miles. They call it the Scorch-it lies between here and there. It's centered mainly around what they used to call the equator-it's just heat and dust now, filled with savages consumed by the Flare beyond help. We're trying to cross that land-to find a cure. But until then, we'll fight WICKED and stop the experiments and tests. It's our hope that you'll join us. " _

I wake up and my first urge to run to the Deadheads and sort this out like I normally do, but then I remember the situation we are in and stop myself. My second urge is to scream in frustration. Instead I sit there in this trance like state, not reacting to anything, just thinking about what I just heard. What is this disease she was talking about, the Flare? What were the sun flares? What made them so bad? What do they have to do with the rest of what she said? What happened to our parents? Why are we all orphaned? Who is WICKED and what do they want? Why were they testing children? Why did they need us? Why were we chosen? Why were they studying our brain waves and how? And most importantly to me, why am I having these dreams? If they really are studying our brains then they should notice that I am dreaming these things and they should stop it. But that would only happen if they didn't want me to dream these things. They are planting these dreams into my head, or letting them happen. Somehow they know what's going to happen before it happens and they are letting me see it. Why? I was snapped out of my confusing and jumbled up thoughts by the door to the room getting thrown open. Everyone in the room was silent as we all stared at the last guy we expected to see. Gally.  
He falls to his knees and breaths heavily as he looks at all of us as if we were his next meal. I was scared stiff and couldn't move. Minho moves in front of me protectively, just incase Gally decides to attack.  
"They'll kill you!" He screams suddenly. "The Grievers will kill you all-one every night till it's over!"  
No one moved or spoke, or even breathed for that matter. We were all too scared to do anything, but stare at the crazy Glader who just started limping forwards toward Thomas. He stops right in front of the poor shank and points at him.  
"You." He says simply. "It's all your fault!" He yells and punches Thomas in the face. Newt shoves him back and he falls, then looking at every one of us in turn he speaks.  
"It can't be solved." He says, his eyes settling on me with a look that makes me more scared than I have ever been in the Glade. I feel like I am a child again and I scared of the one kid on the street who everyone told me not to talk to. "The shuck Maze'll kill all you shanks..." Gally continues. "The Grievers'll kill you... one every night till it's over... I... It's better this way..." His eyes drop and suddenly I can breath again. "They'll only kill you one a night... their stupid Variables..."  
Newt takes a step forward. "Gally," He says, "shut your bloody hole-there's a Griever right out the window. Just sit on your butt and be quiet-maybe it'll go away."  
Gally glares at Newt. "You don't get it, Newt. You're too stupid-you've always been too stupid. There's no way out-there's no way to win! They're gonna kill you, all of you-one by _one!_ " He screams before throwing his body at the window and tearing at the wooden boards.  
"No!" Newet yells as he runs to Gally  
"Gally! What are you _doing_!" Thomas yells  
"You shut your shuck-face, _Thomas_." Gally says his name as if it were poison in his mouth. "You shut up! I know who you are, but I don't care anymore. I can only do what's right."  
With that he ripped the final board off the window, which exploded into the room, sending everyone scrambling to get away. Minho drags me to my feet and rushes me out of the room and into the hallway, where I sit in a daze. The one thing that I was aware of was Minho leaving my side and running off. The Grievers left and chaos broke out all over the Glade, but I didn't pay any mind to any of it. I just sat in the hallway of the Homestead in a daze.


	30. Escaping

Five days passed by while I was in the daze. I was aware of some things, like Minho coming in every now and then and talking to me, but I can't remember what he was saying. I remember silence and fear and screams and panic and hope.  
"Hey Echo." Minho says from beside me for some reason his voice is getting through the daze. He sits next to me on the chair beside the bed they laid me down in and hold my hand. "We're leaving. We know the way out and we're leaving. Getting our shuck butts our of here. I don't care if you're conscious or in or coma or what, I'm not leaving you here. You're coming with me one way or another, I don't care if I have to carry you through the whole shuck Maze, I'll do it. Though it would be easier to have you running beside me, so if you could wake up that would be wonderful." Something about what he says enables me to move again, knocks me out of daze, or something. All that I know is that I open my eyes for the first time in five days and look at Minho.  
"Okay." I say quietly and he gets a huge smile on his face.  
"You're awake! Are you okay? What happened?"  
I shake my head. "Not now. I probably shouldn't think about it. I'll tell you once we get out of this shuck place."  
"Sounds good to me."  
Minho stands up and holds his hand out to me. It's awkward, walking again after five days of just laying there, but it only takes me a couple steps to be able to walk on my own again. Minho and I want downstairs and grabs some of Frypan's food then we go outside. I make sure to grab my guitar on the way out. I figure that this might be my last time to sing, might as well not waste it. I eat quickly and then strum a few cords on the guitar. Everyone shuts up immediately. I play a tune that I remember and replace the actual lyrics with something else, that pertains more to our situation than the actual lyrics do. So with the whole Glade waiting in anticipation for my last song in the Maze, I sing.

"Hey Runner, there's a big dark world you don't remember

Lost brothers, there's a strange fake sky we're all stuck under  
Oh, what's beyond this emerald grover?  
We're close

but do we really wanna know  
Hey stranger, we're surrounded by this constant danger  
Dark sister, if our past is gone where is our future?  
How, if they're WICKED are they good? And why?  
This plan is set, but not yet understood.  
What if I lose my mind?  
Oh, promise you will stop my fall  
What if we risk it all  
And nothing lies behind these walls?  
When the night comes falling down, we'll run  
We can't go back and yet we can't go on  
Wake sleeper, we're the only girls out of all the Gladers  
Don't trust me, I don't know myself how could you know me  
Oh, we'll escape this Maze they've grown, this war  
This grievous task we've been selected for.  
And if we all get home  
I wont regret this life at all  
And if we started alone  
I'll take your hand and wont let go  
If they're WICKED are they good? And who,  
Would lead these broken people to their doom?"

When I strum the last chord I look over at Minho who is sitting next to me and smile at him. He smiles back and grabs my hand. Then I look out at the rest of the Gladers, some are nodding approvingly, others are crying, but most just seem depressed in general. Finally Newt uses the attention that I had to talk to everyone. There're forty-one of us. Make sure you've got your weapons. Other than that, isn't a whole lot to buggin' say-you've all been told the plan. We're gonna fight our way out through to the Griever Hole, and Tommy here's gonna punch in his little magic code and then we're gonna get payback on the Creators. Simple as that." For a moment, I panic because I don't have any weapons or anything, but then Minho hands me a bag that he packed for me and I smile at him gratefully.  
"Shouldn't someone give a pep talk or something?" He asks Newt.  
"Go ahead." Newt tells him.  
Minho nods and turns to face everyone. "Be careful, don't die." He says simply, making me roll my eyes.  
"Great. We're all bloody inspired." Newt says. "You all know the plan. After two years of being treated like mice, tonight we're making a stand. Tonight we're taking the fight back to the Creators, no matter what we have to go through to get there. Tonight the Grievers better be scared." People started cheering, but I didn't feel like joining in. Instead I turned to Minho.  
"That was a beautiful and moving pep talk." I tell him sarcastically.  
"You think so? I was pretty impressed with it."  
I smile and kiss him. "Seriously though. Take your own advice. Be careful, and don't die. I wouldn't be able to take it."  
"The same goes for you. I could never live with myself if something happened to you."  
"Then it's decided. Neither of us is allowed to die."  
"Sounds good to me."  
Next to me I hear Newt yell, "Hear that, Creators! We're coming!" And then the hoard of Gladers runs into the Maze.

_  
The song she sings is a parody of "Hey Brother" by Avicii. The parody is called "Hey Runner" and it is done by Alice Christine on YouTube . She does some really good parody's, you should check her out.


	31. The Maze

It didn't take long for me to become out of breath. Just I started to grow tired, Newt left the front and jogged up to us.  
"You lead the way now." He tells Minho who nods, smiles at me, and then runs ahead. I stick behind with Thomas and them, because I am having enough trouble with running at this pace, I don't need to lead.  
After an hour of gasping for air, trying not to pass out from exhaustion, and almost dying of thirst we came to a corner and stop. I am standing in the back with all the non-runners and we all bend over and start gasping for breath.  
"Do you hear that." I hear Minho's voice say from up ahead. There are a few more moments of silence before I hear, "Oh, no. Oh, no." His voice sending chills down my spine as I realize that we're in trouble. "There's at least a dozen of them. Maybe fifteen. They're just waiting for us!" Everyone is silent. I share a few terrified looks from some of the other Gladers and then I look at Alby. This must be it. This must be when he dies. I make a vow to keep an eye on him from now on.  
"Maybe they've already taken a kid back at the Glade." Thomas says hopefully. "Maybe we can get past them-why else would they just be sitting-"  
A loud noise from behind cut him off. We all spun around to see Grievers moving down the Maze towards us. Then there was another loud noise coming from a different corridor. There are Grievers there too. We're surrounded with no way out. All the Gladers pack into the middle, most of us probably hoping for either Thomas, Minho, or Newt to have a plan for us. Someone grabs my hand and pulls me back. I turn to see Minho who has a strange look on his face. He's scared, I realize, and that terrifies me. For a few moments everyone is silent. No one moves, speaks, or breaths, it's just like that first night that the Grievers cam into the Glade. We are all just waiting in terrified silence.  
"Got any ideas?" I hear Thomas ask.  
"No. I don't understand what they're bloody waiting for." Newt replies  
"We shouldn't have come." Alby says suddenly.  
"Well, we'd be no better off in the Homestead. Hate to say it, but if one of us dies that's better than all of us."  
"Maybe I should..." Alby says, and suddenly I realize what he's thinking.  
"Alby, don't." I beg him. "Please Alby, we can't lose you, don't do this to us." Even as I talk he's already walking forward towards the Cliff. Now Newt joins me in trying to talk him out of it.  
"Alby? Get back here!" He yells, but the only response he gets is Alby breaking into a full on sprint towards the Grievers.  
"Alby!" Newt screams, but I already know its too late. I saw this coming. I close my eyes, not daring to look at anyone because I don't want them to see the dead look in my eyes. I've already mourned over his death, I don't need to do it again. Newt moves to follow Alby, but Thomas grabs him before he can.  
"Let go!" Newt yells  
"Are you nuts!" Thomas shouts at him. "There's nothing you can do!" By now a bunch of the Grievers were all over Alby, attacking him in a flurry of blubber and metal. The one thing that was missing, was the screams. He didn't scream once. Newt finally gives up and almost falls backwards.  
"I can't believe it. I can't believe he just did that." Newt mumbles. Minho moves from my side to Newt's  
"We can't waste what he did." Minho says. "We'll fight 'em if we have to, make a path to the Cliff for you and Teresa. Get in the Hole and do your thing-we'll keep them off until you scream for us to follow."  
"Hopefully they'll go dormant for a while. We should only need a minute or so to punch in the code."  
"How can you guys be so heartless." Newt mumbles.  
"What do you want Newt? Should we all dress up and have a funeral?" Minho says, probably more harshly than he meant to.  
"Newt," I say to him. "You knew this was coming. I told you, we can't escape it." He doesn't respond, though Thomas looks like he wants to.  
"Alby didn't wanna go back to his old life." Minho says. "He freaking _sacrificed_ himself for us-and they aren't attacking, so maybe it worked. _We'd_ be heartless if we wasted it. Listen up!" He yells, addressing everyone, "Number one priority is to protect Thomas and Teresa. Get them to the Cliff and the Hole so-"  
He is cut off by the Greivers coming back to life. Panic rises in my chest and I silently pray that I wont have another panic attack and go into a daze for five days again.  
"Somehow I have to get through that." I hear Thomas say. I look at Minho, but he's looking at Newt.  
"They're _coming!_ " Teresa shouts, "We have to do something!"  
"You lead." Newt tells Minho. "Make a bloody path for Tommy and the girl. Do it." Minho nods and grabs my hand.  
"You stick by me, alright?" He says and I nod nervously. He turns to face everyone. "We head straight for the Cliff! Fight through the middle, push the shuckin' things towards the walls. What matters the most is getting Thomas and Teresa to the Griever Hole!" I squeeze hand tightly and do my best to keep my breathing even. "Ready!" He yells. " _Now!_ " Minho pulls me forward with him, I can barely keep up he's running so fast. When we get close enough, Minho swings his barbwire club in the air and slams it into a Griever as I take my lousy spear and poke at the thing to make it move back, while attempting to keep my guitar safe. If I survive this I'm gonna want this guitar with me. It doesn't take long for us to make an opening wide enough for Thomas and Teresa to run through. After about a minute of fighting I see their figures race by me. Good. Now all the rest of us have to do is not die for another minute or two. I take a quick moment to look around. Minho is next to me fighting a Griever with Newt, everyone else is scattered about the Maze. I am fighting a Griever with Frypan and Winston. Screams are constantly ripping through the air as one Glader after another gets hurt or killed by the Grievers. It's not looking good for us. Something slices my face, then my chest, them my calf. I cry out from pain and swing my spear randomly, missing completely. The Griever goes in for the kill when Minho jumps in front and hits the thing out of the way with his club. He quickly help me up.  
"I'm fine." I tell him. "Go help Newt." He nods and runs back to the Griever that he and Newt had been fighting. I look over at Frypan to see him having issues, so I run over and stab at the thing with my spear, but it catches the point and snaps it. Now I only have half a stick. I keep poking at it with the stick even though I know it isnt doing much. Blood curdling screams continue to tear through the air as we lose more and more Gladers to this seemingly helpless battle. Then suddenly everything stops.


	32. WICKED

All of the Griever shut down. They did it! Thomas and Teresa did it! I laugh with a giddy sense of relief now that its over, but as I go to hug Minho, I see everyone. All of the Gladers are in pretty rough shape, there's about half as many as we started with and blood is everywhere. My happiness falls away and I look at Minho who smiles sadly at me. He takes my hand and we all walk over to the Griever Hole. He kisses my cheek and without saying a word, jumps off the Cliff, disappearing in midair. I wait a few seconds before jumping in after him. The sensation is weird. It feels like I jumped through a wall of freezing water. I land on top of Minho on the other side. He had just stood up as I slammed into him, knocking us both down. He looks up at me and we both laugh. He kisses quickly and I get off of him, helping him up and making sure the two of us get out of the way before the next person comes through. Newt came through next. Then Frypan, Winston, and the others. People stopped coming after I had counted twenty-one of us total. We had started with forty-one. I can't believe that many died.  
"The rest?" Thomas asks.  
"Half of us," Newt replies, "Dead."  
We were all silent for a while before Minho speaks up. "You know what? Half might've died, but half of us shucking lived. And nobody got stung-just like Thomas thought. We've gotta get out of here." His little speech makes me feel a little better, but I still feel awful that I couldn't do anything about their deaths.  
"Lets get out of here. Right now." Newt says.  
"Where do we go?" Minho asks the question we are all thinking.  
"I heard a door open down that way." Thomas says pointing down a long tunnel.  
"Well-let's go." MInho says and no one argued. Everyone started filing into the mysterious tunnel. We walk for a while before someone screams. Then someone else's screams follow. I look at Minho nervously, but then I hear someone say,  
"Looks like it ends in a slide up there, shooting downward." I bite my lip warily. A slide? Seriously? Before long it was my turn to go down it. The slide was slick and oily and gross. It didn't help that I was covered in cuts and bruises. The oil stung my skin as I slid down the slide. I was tempted to laugh and almost did, but then an awful thought came to mind. The only person that I saw die who hasnt yet is Chuck. The slide went on and on, seemingly endless and eventually I was able to push all thoughts out of my mind and enjoy the ride down, no matter how gross it felt and smelled. Then suddenly the slide ends and I shoot out and land on a body. I look down to see that it's Winston. I laugh and so does he. We stand up right as Minho comes down and plows into me. We both would have fallen over it Frypan hadn't caught us. I am about to laugh again when I realize that I know where we are. The room is huge and is full of lots of stuff, but only one thing is catching my eye. The glass wall that separates us from about twenty windows that rows of people behind them. They looked awful and creepy and somehow I knew that these were the Creators. All the Gladers remain silent as we stare at them. Finally Chuck breaks the silence,  
"Who are those people?"  
"The Creators." Minho says angrily. "I'm gonna break your faces!" He shouts at them, but before he can do anything I grab his arm. I wont let him leave my side.  
"What do we do? What are they waiting on?" Thomas asks.  
"They've probably revved the Grievers back up. They're probably coming right-" Newt gets cut off by an alarm going off.  
"What now?" Chuck asks. I look at the kid and know that this is the room he dies in. After a minute of the alarm sounding it finally stops and I realize that Chuck is looking at me too, with a concerned look. I look away and watch as two people walk into the room. One is a girl, or a woman I guess would be the best word, who was wearing black pants with a white shirt that had WICKED proudly sewn on it in blue letters. She was rather pretty, but at the same time scary calm and not the most welcoming person in the world. The person standing next to her was a boy, that much I could tell, but any other information was covered up by the huge hoodie that concealed his face.  
"Welcome back." The woman says. "Over two years, and so few dead. Amazing." Next to me I feel Minho tense and I squeeze his hand.  
" _Excuse_ me?" Newt asks.  
"Everything has gone according to plan, Mr. Newton." She says and I almost laugh hearing her call him, _Mr. Newton._ "Although we expected a few more of you to give up along the way." She looks over at he boy at her side and reaches over to pull the hood off his head, as if he is not able to do it himself. The boys eyes find me first and once again I find myself frozen in place, a fear that feels like ice in my bones spreading throughout me. Once again I find myself staring into the eyes of a crazed Gally.  
Minho tenses again. "What's _he_ doing here!"  
"You're safe now. Please be at ease." The lady says calmly, but none of us were relaxed at all.  
"At ease?" Minho yells. "Who are you, telling us to be at ease? We wanna see the police, the mayor, the president-somebody!" I squeeze his hand even more, terrified that he might do something rash and get himself hurt.  
"You have no idea what you're talking about, boy." She says. "I'd expect more maturity form someone who's passed the Maze Trials."  
Minho takes a breath to talk back, but Newt elbows him in the gut before he can talk.  
"Gally," Newt says. "What's going on?"  
Gally doesn't respond, but the woman does. "One day you'll all be grateful for what we've done for you. I can only promise this, and trust your minds to accept it. If you don't then the whole thing was a mistake. Dark times, Mr. Newton. Dark times." What is she talking about, I wonder. "There is, of course, one final Variable." She finishes before stepping back and I realize I know what it is. I look at Chuck and don't look away.  
"Gally?" Thomas says.  
"They... can control me... I don't... I... have... to..."Gally chokes out. I glance at Gally to see him reaching for something.  
"Chuck don't!" I yell and he gives me a confused look and then he just looks surprised, then before I can do anything, he jumps in front of Thomas and the knife buries itself in his chest.


	33. Freedom

p style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px; line-height: 24.48px;"span style="font-size: 1em;"I turn away and bury my head into Minho's chest and begin to cry. Minho strokes my head and I hear shouts, and footsteps. Then Minho isnt holding me anymore. I fall to the ground, now too numb inside to cry. More shouts, more movement. Then Minho was beside me again. His arms wrapping around me. The sound of guns being fired. Glass shattering. More screams. More footsteps. Then Minho picks me up and starts to run. That brings me back to my senses. I wrap my arms around his neck and lower my body until I am running beside him. I look around and see that there are new people. Rescuers! We are being rescued! We ran out of the building and into a rainy night. We kept running until we got on a bus and once everyone was on the bus driver speeds off. I put my guitar safely next to me and close my eyes. I feel numb inside. After everything I have been through I finally can't feel a thing. I put my head in my hands and feel Minho scoot closer to me and wrap his arm around me. I lean into him and now I can't tell the difference between pain, sadness, and numbness. I'm not sure if I want to scream, cry, or just drop dead right here, right now. /spanbr /span style="font-size: 1em;""It's okay." Minho promises me. "We're all okay."/spanbr /span style="font-size: 1em;""Not all of us. Only twenty of us." I correct him./spanbr /span style="font-size: 1em;""Yeah, but you're okay. And that's all that I care about."/spanbr /span style="font-size: 1em;""That's not true. You care about the others."/spanbr /span style="font-size: 1em;""I suppose so, but the others I can live without. If you die I die."/spanbr /span style="font-size: 1em;""Don't say that."/spanbr /span style="font-size: 1em;""Why not? It's true."/spanbr /span style="font-size: 1em;""Because I don't want it to be. I don't want you getting hurt because of me."/spanbr /span style="font-size: 1em;""I'll be fine."/spanbr /span style="font-size: 1em;""You keep saying that, but you can't be fine forever. One day something is going to happen to you, and that promise is going to break and I'm going to be left alone."/spanbr /span style="font-size: 1em;""You wont be alone. You'll be with the rest of the Gladers." /spanbr /span style="font-size: 1em;""The rest of the Gladers don't mean as much to me as you do."/spanbr /span style="font-size: 1em;"He falls silent and I lay my head on his shoulder and try to get some sleep, but before I can I hear the woman in front of us talking. /spanbr /"It started with the sun flares." She /"What-" I hear Teresa ask, but stop. My breath catches in my throat and I look up at /"This is it." I say /"This is what?" Minho /"Shhh. Just listen to the lady in front of us." Luckily he listens to me and shuts up. The lady goes through the whole thing that I heard in my dream and afterwards Minho is /"What does any of that mean." He asksbr /"I'm not sure yet, but I'm trying to figure it out." br /Minho nods and I sigh and fall asleep against his chest. br /br /I have no idea how long the ride is, but when I wake up we are at some building. We are all rushed off of the bus and into the building and I made sure to grab my guitar. The inside of it is full of color. It looks like some sort of a pre-school with how much color there is. I look over at Minho to see his reaction to our new temporary home. He is staring at everything in /"I've been shucked and gone to Heaven." He says and I can only nod in agreement. br /Soon, after we almost get used to the inside of the building, some people showed us our rooms and assigned beds and delivered pizza. Real pizza, not just the stuff that Frypan cooked up in the kitchen back in the Glade. As we ate, most people smiled, though we all stayed quiet. When I was done I grab my guitar and try to think of a song to sing. I am too tired to come up with one on the spot, but most of the songs I know are more up beat, or, if the lyrics are appropriate for this moment, are too rock or fast. I finally pick out one song that has the perfect lyrics, but is too fast for the situation and I slow it down. The beginning starts out at a slower tempo that then speeds up for the rest of the song, so I will just play the whole song at the beginning tempo and not speed it up like it's supposed to do. Finally when I am ready I clear my throat and strum the first chord of the song. /p  
p style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px; line-height: 24.48px; text-align: center;""span style="font-size: 11pt;"span style="color: #292929; font-family: proxnov-reg, arial, sans-serif;"When I was a young boy,/span/span/p  
p style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px; line-height: 24.48px; text-align: center;"span style="font-size: 11pt;"My father took me into the city,br /To see a marching band,br /He said, "Son, when you grow up,br /Would you be the savior of the broken,br /The beaten and the damned,"/span/p  
p style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px; line-height: 24.48px; text-align: center;"span style="font-size: 11pt;"He said, "Will you defeat them,br /Your demons and all the non-believers,br /The plans that they have made,br /Because one day, I'll leave you,br /A phantom to lead you in the summer,br /To join the Black Parade,"/span/p  
p style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px; line-height: 24.48px; text-align: center;"span style="font-size: 11pt;"When I was a young boy,br /My father took me into the city,br /To see a marching band,br /He said, Son, when you grow up,br /Would you be the savior of the broken,br /The beaten and the damned,/span/p  
p style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px; line-height: 24.48px; text-align: center;"span style="font-size: 11pt;"Sometimes I get the feeling,br /She's watching over me,br /And other times I feel like I should go,br /When through it all, the rise and fall,br /The bodies in the streets,br /And when you're gone we want you all to know,/span/p  
p style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px; line-height: 24.48px; text-align: center;"span style="font-size: 11pt;"We'll carry on, we'll carry on,br /And though you're dead and gone, believe me,br /Your memory will carry on, we'll carry on,br /And in my heart, I can't contain it,br /The anthem won't explain it,/span/p  
p style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px; line-height: 24.48px; text-align: center;"span style="font-size: 11pt;"A world that sends you reeling,br /From decimated dreams,br /Your misery and hate will kill us all,br /So paint it black and take it back,br /Let's shout out loud and clear,br /Defiant to the end we hear the call,/span/p  
p style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px; line-height: 24.48px; text-align: center;"span style="font-size: 11pt;"To carry on, we'll carry on,br /And though you're dead and gone, believe me,br /Your memory will carry on, we'll carry on,br /And though you're broken and defeated,br /Your weary widow marches,/span/p  
p style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px; line-height: 24.48px; text-align: center;"span style="font-size: 11pt;"On and on we carry through the fears,br /Disappointed faces of your peers,br /Take a look at me,br /'Cause I could not care at all,/span/p  
p style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px; line-height: 24.48px; text-align: center;"span style="font-size: 11pt;"Do or die, you'll never make me,br /Because the world will never take my heart,br /Though you try, you'll never break me,br /We want it all, we wanna play this part,/span/p  
p style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px; line-height: 24.48px; text-align: center;"span style="font-size: 11pt;"Won't explain or say I'm sorry,br /I'm unashamed, I'm gonna show my scar,br /Give a cheer for all the broken,br /Listen here, because it's who we are,/span/p  
p style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px; line-height: 24.48px; text-align: center;"span style="font-size: 11pt;"I'm just a man, I'm not a hero,br /Just a boy who wants to sing his song,br /Just a man, I'm not a hero,br /I don't care,/span/p  
p style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px; line-height: 24.48px; text-align: center;"span style="font-size: 11pt;"We'll carry on, we'll carry on,br /And though you're dead and gone, believe me,br /Your memory will carry on, you'll carry on,br /And though you're broken and defeated,br /Your weary widow marches on,/span/p  
p style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px; line-height: 24.48px; text-align: center;"span style="font-size: 11pt;"Do or die, you'll never make me,br /Because the world will never take my heart,br /Though you try, you'll never break me,br /We want it all, we wanna play this part,br /(We'll carry on)/span/p  
p style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px; line-height: 24.48px; text-align: center;"span style="font-size: 11pt;"Do or die, you'll never make me,br /Because the world will never take my heart,br /Though you try, you'll never break me,br /We want it all, we wanna play this part,br /(We'll carry on)"/span/p  
p style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px; line-height: 24.48px;"span style="font-size: 11pt;"All the Gladers are silent the whole time I am singing. When I was done, the people came back and told us it was time to go to bed. None of us argued, we just got up and left. Teresa and I to the girls side, and the boys to theirs. At the last second I paused and ran back to Minho. I grab his arm and force him to turn around. I kiss him quickly and make a split second decision. br /"That dream that I had when I was saying goodbye to my friends, you were in it. When we said goodbye you asked me what the best part of all of it was, I didn't reply, so you answered for me and you know what you said. You said that the best part of getting our memories wiped was that we would get to fall in love all over again." I kiss him again. "I love you Minho." I say quietly before stepping back and jogging into my room that I now share with Teresa. I lay down in the bunk beside hers and try to fall asleep, without much luck. I hear Teresa mumbling and laughing and I wonder what she's /"Teresa?" I /"Yeah." She says, sounding a little out of /"Who are you talking to?" br /She freezes. "What do you mean?" br /"You keep mumbling and you laughed. I just thought that maybe you were talking to some imaginary friend or something."br /She pauses for a moment before saying, "I can trust you, right?"br /"Yeah. Of course you can."br /"I'm talking to Thomas." She says /"You mean the Thomas that is on the other side of the building with the other guys?" I ask /"Yes."br /"How does that work."br /"Telepathy." She says /"You mean, mind reading?"br /"Not quite. Telepathy is more like having a conversation with someone in your head and in theirs, whereas mind reading is.. well, mind reading."br /"Right.." I say, not quite /"You don't believe me. You think I'm crazy."br /I am about to reply with yes, but the more I think about it the more I realize that if I can have dreams of the future, it's not that crazy that she can use telepathy. "No." I say finally. "I think it's plausible."br /"Really?"br /"Yeah. I mean, I've been having dreams of the future and the past since before Chuck came into the Glade."br /"Dreams of the future?"br /"And the past. The ones of the past were memories that slipped through the block in my mind."br /"And what about the future?"br /"I'm not sure. WICKED must have some way of predicting the future and then plant them into my head while I was asleep."br /"Then they probably let those memories slip past." She says and I pause. She has a good point. br /"So whats with you and Thomas?" I /"I don't know. Whats with you and Minho?"br /"Touche. But seriously. You had all those Gladers practically drooling over you when you first arrived and you chose Thomas, the Greenie as your.." I pause, not sure what to refer to him as. "Best friend." I decide /"You jealous." She asks in a somewhat playful /"Not at all. I've got the one that I want. I was just wondering."br /"I don't know. I remembered him from before the Glade and he and I have that mind thing, so he just seemed like the person to go to."br /"Sounds reasonable." I say and she doesn't reply. Finally I decide that she must be asleep and I decide to get some sleep myself. /span/p  
p style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px; line-height: 24.48px;"span style="font-size: 14.6667px; line-height: 24.48px;"_/spanbr style="font-size: 14.6667px; line-height: 24.48px;" /span style="font-size: 14.6667px; line-height: 24.48px;"The song she sings is Welcome to the Black Parade by My Chemical Romance./span/p  
p style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px; line-height: 24.48px;" /p 


End file.
